TRIAS. 227 



England were first identified by Sedgwick with the Keuper of 

 Germany. The term Waterstones was originally used by Mr. G. W. 

 Ormerod because the surfaces of some of the beds had a watery 

 appearance, like watered silk. The term as generally understood 

 expresses the water-bearing qualities of the strata. (See p. 228.) 



Remains of Plants, Entomostraca, Fishes, Reptiles, and Amphibia 

 have been obtained from the Keuper rocks. 



Many foot-prints of Labyrinthodonts {Chcirotherittm) have been 

 discovered in the Keuper Sandstones, and particularly in Cheshire. 

 Perhaps the quarries at Storeton (or Stourton) Hill, near Birken- 

 head, in the peninsula of Wirral, are the richest in these traces of 

 ancient life. They have also been met with at Daresbury quarry, 

 and in quarries at Lymm and Runcorn. These foot-prints are 

 called the "lady's foot" by quarrymen. Ripple-marks and im- 

 pressions of rain-drops have also been met with in the Storeton 

 quarries. Another genus of Labyrinthodont {Mastodonsaunis) has 

 been obtained from strata near Warwick. 



Remains of the Dinosaurian reptile Cladyodon, and of the Lacer- 

 tilians Rhynchosaunis and Hyperodapedon also occur, bones having 

 been found near Warwick, Grinshill, and (of the last-named genus) 

 near Sidmouth. Among Fishes, PalcBoniscics, Hybodus, and Acrodus 

 occur. The Ostracod Estheria vmiuta^ is recorded from many 

 localities. Annelide tubes have been obtained, also remains 

 (casts) of plants identified as Calamites, Echinostachys, Equisetum, 

 and Voltzia. 



Lower Keuper {Basement Beds).- — This division consists of white 

 and red sandstone, with sometimes coarse, irregularly-bedded sand- 

 stones, calcareousbreccia, conglomerate, and lenticular bands of marl. 

 Upper Keuper. — The uppermost division of the Trias consists 

 mainly of red and variegated marls, the red colour preponderating, 

 and the beds being mottled with spots and streaks of a grey or green 

 hue. The marl is soft and usually much broken up and fissured 

 by cracks or joints and miniature faults ; it thus presents a rubbly 

 appearance, and is often separated into small masses of a cuboidal 

 form. Interstratified with the marl there occur beds of hard red 

 and sometimes grey or cream-coloured marl, marly limestone, and 

 calcareous sandstone. And in the south-west of England, beds of 

 Dolomitic Conglomerate are associated with 'the Marl. The 

 presence of carbonate of lime in the Red Marl does not appear 

 to be invariable, but the amount is sometimes so trifling as not to 

 be detected by the application of hydrochloric acid. 



The colouring matter of the red and green marls is due to 

 different states of the oxides of iron contained in them. Mr. G. 

 Maw believes that while variegation is partly due to infiltration and 

 dissolution, it is mainly due to segregation.^ 



^ This was originally termed Posidonia or Posidonoinya viimita. 



^ E. Hull, Triassic and Permian Rocks of the Midland Counties, p. 66 ; and 

 A. Strahan, Geol. of Chester. 



^ Q. J. xxiv. 369, 400. See also De la Beche, Mem. Geol. Survey, vol. i. 

 p. 50, and Ramsay, Q.J. xxvii. 189. 



