CHAPTER XI 



THE PERMIAN SYSTEM 



A. NOMENCLATURE AND SUBDIVISIONS 



IN the early days of geological research all the strata which inter- 

 vened between the Carboniferous and the Lias were classed together 

 as the New Red Sandstone, but in 1841 and subsequent years 

 Sir R. Murchison saw good reason to divide them into two great 

 series and to believe that the lower series, on account of the 

 Palaeozoic aspect of its fauna, formed the summit of the Palaeozoic 

 succession, while the higher strata might be regarded as marking 

 the beginning of Neozoic time. 



Further, he found that this lower set of post-Carboniferous rocks 

 was more fully developed in Russia than in any other part of 

 Europe, and was especially well exposed in the province or ancient 

 kingdom of Perm, whence he proposed to call them Permian. 



Although the name Permian has been adopted in England, 

 France, and Russia, it made its way very slowly in Germany, 

 mainly because Murchison made mistakes in his grouping of the 

 German rocks. In that country the strata which are really of 

 Permian age fall into two strongly contrasted divisions, and just as 

 the overlying Trias was named from its consisting of three such 

 groups, so the term Dyas was proposed by Marcou in 1859 from 

 the duality of the underlying system. This name was adopted by 

 Geinitz, and was for a time much used on the continent, but 

 Professor Kayser and others have more recently preferred the 

 older name as on the whole a better one. 



We have seen that where the Carboniferous System is complete 

 and the Stephanian Series is fully developed there is a passage 

 from it into the Permian. Further, where the Permian System is 

 fully represented it consists of three stages or series, viz. (1) a series 

 of beds like the underlying Coal-measures and containing a flora 

 which does not differ much from the Stephanian ; this has been 



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