T1IK I'M K.MIAN SYSTEM 341 



lain l>y sandstones of Saxonian age, grey in the lower part, red 

 :uul mnttli'd in the upper part, with a combined thickness of about 

 1600 feet Nothing comparable with the Zechstein or Magnesian 

 Liinr.-tone Series has been found in any part of France. 



Of the more southern Permian facies that of Aveyron and Lodeve 

 may be taken as typical, the succession in that district being : 



Saxonian, /Fine sandstones and black shales passing down into red 

 1500 feet \ sandstones and marls with Walchia and Callipleris. 

 A , ( Lodeve slates with plant remains. 



-00 feet I Black shales with palcBOniscus - 



{ Sandstones, shales, and a basal conglomerate. 



The small basin of Littry in Calvados deserves mention because 

 of its proximity to England, and because the deposits which there 

 overlie the Stephanian are referred by French geologists to the 

 Autunian. They consist of red sandstone, succeeded by a bed of 

 magnesian limestone and shales from which remains of Palceoniscus 

 and Amblypterus have been obtained. 



2. Germany 



Permian rocks occupy much larger areas in Germany than they 

 do in France or Britain, and two of these areas may be specially 

 noticed, i.e. that of the Sarre district and that of Saxony and 

 Thuringia. 



Sarre Valley. The most extensive area of the Lower Rothlie- 

 gende or Autunian is that of the Sarre and Nahe district, where 

 they occupy a wide space between the Devonian of the Hunsruck 

 on the north and the outcrop of the Trias on the south. Here, 

 as shown in Fig. 103, the Ottweiler Beds are overlain conformably 

 by the Ousel Beds, consisting of red and grey sandstones and shales 

 witli thin layers of coal, and as at Autun they have a Carboniferous 

 flora to which a Permian aspect is imparted by the presence of 

 Walchia piniformis, Callipteris conferta, and Calamites gigas. 



The succeeding Lebach Group comprises sandstones at the base, 

 overlain by shales containing ironstone nodules in which are fish 

 remains, scales of Archegosaurus and the Crustacean Gampsonyx. 

 Interbedded with these sediments are sheets of porphyritic andesite 

 and melaphyr. 



The Saxonian is represented by a series of red conglomerates, sand- 

 stones, and shales, the materials of which have been mainly derived 

 from the detrition of the neighbouring Devonian and Carboniferous 

 rocks. These " Upper Rothliegendes" have a much wider extension 

 northward and eastward than the Autunian, overlapping the latter 

 on to the older rocks. 



