Gypsiferous Rocks in North America. 545 
brought from numerous localities in Nova Scotia by Mr. Lyell, 
and which he has obligingly submitted to the examination of 
M. de Verneuil and myself, that I have not much doubt of these 
gypsiferous deposits and associated limestones of Nova Scotia, 
being absolutely the same as the Permian rocks of Russia. Even 
lithologically there is the greatest similarity, whether in the large 
rock-masses of gypsum, red and green marls, conglomerates and sand- 
stones, or in the magnesian and sandy limestones; and when we 
compare the fossils submitted to us, the parallelism is as firmly 
established as can be, between any two groups of the same age 
in distant localities. It is not merely that these American strata con- 
tain a few species identical with forms which typify the Magnesian 
Limestone of England, the Zechstein of Germany and the Permian 
rocks of Russia, but still more that such beds immediately overlying 
the carboniferous deposits, and even, according to Mr. Lyell, par- 
taking of some of their flexures, should be found to contain exactly 
the same distribution of genera, and as near as possible the same 
proportions of species in each genus as in the synchronous de- 
posits of Europe! Again, the fossils of this group are, for the 
most part, as badly preserved and limited in species in America 
as in Europe, and the striking agreement of those which can 
be detected is therefore the more remarkable. Even in nega- 
tive proofs the similitude is great ; for wherever these deposits have 
been traced eastward through Europe and to the confines of Asia, 
they have been found to be singularly deficient in chambered shells, 
and such Mr. Lyell finds to be the case in the various localities ex- 
amined by him in North America. But having already sufficiently 
called your attention to the striking points of agreement between 
the American and Russian formations, I anticipate the pleasure you 
will shortly experience when Mr. Lyell brings the subject, as he in- 
tends to do, before the Society. 
Seeing the great variety of lithological aspects of these strata in 
Russia, and that the flora as well as the fauna are of a type di- 
stinct from those of the carboniferous age, we proposed the name 
Permian, a term which I trust may be considered more applicable 
to the equally diversified deposits of North America than “ Zech- 
stein” or ‘* Magnesian Limestone, ’—names which point to one mem- 
ber only of this complex series as seen in Russia, and where it oc- 
cupies a region larger than the whole kingdom of France ! 
Mr. Logan having also stated that he found slabs in some rocks 
in the bay of Fundy, which he considers to be of the same age, and 
which exhibit footmarks on their surface, is it possible, I 
would ask, to connect with the same formation, the red and 
green marls of the valley of Connecticut, though distant 400 miles, 
in which Ornithichnites occur, and which also contain remains of Pa- 
lzoniscus, a genus of fish very characteristic of the Permian rocks ? 
To this question we shall again revert under the head of Palzon- 
tology, in considering the Ornithichnites of Connecticut*. 
* Since the Anniversary of the Society the fossils of the gypsiferous rocks 
of Nova Scotia collected by Mr, Logan have been examined by Mr, Phillips, 
