On the Tr'assic and Permian Rocks of the Odenwald. 73 



trappoid breccia of Worcestershire. It is of local origin ; the parent 

 rock-masses being still seen in the neighbourhood. Beneath the 

 Worcestershire breccia, however, is a series of red marls and sand- 

 stones, not occurring in the Odenwald, but probably present in the 

 Thiiringerwald. The origin of this breccia is in Germany associated 

 with volcanic phaenomena ; and, according to Prof. Ramsay, it is of 

 glacial origin in England. See Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xi. 

 p. 187. 



Over the Heidelberg breccia lies a great mass of Bunter sand- 

 stone, upwards of 14(5o feet in thickness. It is throughout of a 

 nearly uniform composition; and, except that it contains but com- 

 paratively few pebbles, it is much like the conglomerate-beds of 

 Lancashire and Cheshire. The author considers, that, from its uni- 

 formity of composition, and consequent indivisibility into subdivi- 

 sions, and from its resemblance to the above-mentioned member of 

 the New lied Sandstone of England, this red sandstone of Heidelberg 

 belongs wholly to the Upper Bunter (Bimter-Sandstein), of Triassic 

 age ; and that none of it is referable to the Lower Bunter (Bunter- 

 Schiefer), which Murchison and Morris have shown to belong to the 

 Permian series. 



In England the Bunter is divisible into three groups, viz. 1. 

 Upper variegated sandstone; 2. Conglomerate-beds; 3. Lower 

 variegated sandstone. Whilst the Bunter of the Odenwald would 

 seem to be in this respect imperfect, as compared with that of En- 

 gland, yet the author thinks that the two districts in question pre- 

 sent but one contemporaneous formation. 



Mr. Hull treated of the Muschelkalk, next overlying the Bunter, 

 in a few words, it being absent in England. Of the succeeding for- 

 mation, or Keuper, tlie author stated that a true parallelism may be 

 traced in the order of succession of the beds of this formation in 

 England and around the flanks of the Odenwald. First, or lowest, 

 are grits and shales, about 100 feet thick, with a calcareous breccia, 

 of local origin, in which a fragment of Bunter-sandstone has been 

 met with. These beds are parallel with the " Waterstones" and 

 Keuper-breccia of AVorcestershire, Staifordshire, and Clieshire, and 

 form the "Lower Kcuper-sandstone." Evidences of unconformity 

 between the Waterstones and the Bunter in England are not want- 

 ing, though not so strong as those of the unconformity of the Lower 

 Keuper and the Bunter of the Odenwald. 



A series of gypseous sludes and marls, about 150 feet thick, sej)a- 

 rate tlie Lower from the Upper Kcu])er-sandstonc. The last, about 

 10 feet thick, contain plant-remains, and arc similar to the so-called 

 " Kcuper-sandstone,"' with Posidoiiomya ininula, of England. A con- 

 siderable tluckness of variegated shales, with gypsum and haematite, 

 covers the Uj)per-saiidstonc. 



In conclusion, the author dwelt upon the quasi-triassic aspect of 

 the Permian formation, with its two argillo-arenaccous groujjs and 

 intermediate calcareous band, as pointed out already by Sir Roderick 

 Murchison, and as shown in a synoptical table by wiiich the paper 

 was illustrated. 



