54 REPORT—1843. 
red sandstone of the Vosges, from whence MM. Mongeot and Schimper have de- 
scribed their flora of the Grés bigarré (quite distinct from the “‘ Grés de Vosges,” 
which is probably Permian), occurs in a region where no zechstein exists, and 
where, therefore, the lower limit of the trias cannot be neatly defined. Again, the 
beds of sandstone with impressions of the feet of Cheirotherium are all of them (as 
far as evidences can be obtained) at very little depth beneath the muschelkalk, and 
may therefore, like the strata of Soulz-les-bains, be most naturally linked on to 
that deposit. Descend, however, from that horizon through the vast underlying 
masses which separate it from the zechstein (by far the greater portion of the so- 
called bunter-sandstein), and no animal organic remains have been found with which 
the author is acquainted, and hence Mr. Murchison contends, that rocks perfectly 
representing such lower portion of the bunter-sandstein having been found in Russia 
to contain the same group of fossils as the other and lower strata of the Permian 
rocks, must henceforth be separated from the trias and secondary rocks, and grouped 
with the palozoic strata. 
In support of this view Mr. Murchison read an extract of a letter from Professor 
Naumann of Leipsig, in reply to his proposed classification, which admits, that 
there is no evidence in Germany to set against such an arrangement. 
In the course of his illustration of this subject Mr. Murchison gave a brief account 
of other natural sections in Western Germany (as at Baden and Heidelberg), where 
great masses of the rothe-todte-liegende, resting upon and made up of the primary 
and crystalline rocks of the Black Forest, were seen to pass up into the lower masses 
of the bunter-sandstein, usually without any dividing course of zechstein, though at 
Heidelberg that rock, as on the frontiers of France, is supposed to be represented by 
a thin band of dolomite. 
With regard to the plants of the Permian system brought from Russia, it appears, 
from the last opinions of M. Adolphe Brongniart, to whom they had been referred, 
that though they have a peculiar character, they are, for the most part, closely allied 
to carboniferous forms,—a fact, it is to be observed, which is not only quite in uni- 
son with what has been stated in this memoir respecting the plants of the rothe- 
todte-liegende of Saxony, but is also in complete harmony with the conclusions 
derived from a study of the Producti, Avicule, Corals and Ichthyolites, all of which 
are linked on to their congeners of the carboniferous fauna. Mr. Murchison begged 
the Section to remember, that the Russian plants having this decided paleoxoic cast, 
and associated with Paleothrissi and Protosaurians, occur chiefly in bands of marl, 
conglomerate, &c., overlying the limestones with typical zechstein fossils; and this, 
he observed, was not merely true in a small district, but over an enormous area, in 
which the strata had never been disturbed by any protrusion of rocks of igneous 
origin, and in which they were therefore very much in their pristine condition. 
In conclusion, Mr. Murchison offered a few remarks on the extent to which the 
beds of this portion of the British series described by Professor Sedgwick and other 
authors, might be considered to range under the synonym of Permian*. Speaking 
in a practical point of view, as respected geological mapping he observed, that by 
grouping the lower new red with the magnesian limestone, a well-defined breadth 
of formation was obtained to separate many coal-fields from the younger deposits 
of red sandstone and marl by which they are flanked; and as the magnesian lime- 
stone does not, in many instances, appear in the form of a distinct calcareous de- 
posit, but only as a partial conglomerate, so was it the more desirable to givea 
certain latitude to this group, and not define it too narrowly by mere mineral 
characters. Thus considered, Mr. Murchison believed that the Permian system had 
a real existence even in Ireland; for although true magnesian limestone was un- 
known in that country, yet, to him it appeared highly probable that the red sand- 
stone loaded with fishes (Paleoniscus catopterus, Ag.), at Rhone Hill, near Dun- 
gannon, and which he had formerly described as immediately surmounting carboni- 
ferous tracts, was in fact a true portion of the Permian rocks, and not of the new red 
sandstone, as he had supposed. 
* Since this memoir was read, Mr. Murchison has practically applied the term Permian, in 
a new small general Geological Map of England, published under the auspices of the Society 
for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. With his associates, M. de Verneuil and Count Key- 
-serling, he has also prepared a tabular view of the Permian fauna, which consists of nearly — 
170 species. This will appear in the work entitled ‘ Russia and the Ural Mountains.’ 
