TIIK Ti; I. \sslC SYSTEM 369 



conglomerates prevail in the lower part of the series, sandstones, 

 mail-, and lulu-stones in the upper part, but the succession of beds 

 is very irregular and inconstant. At Gruinard Bay the total thick- 

 ness exceeds 1000 feet ; at Raasay it is probably less than 500 feet, 

 though the general succession is the same ; at Lussay, in Skye, it 

 i>- reduced to a few feet, and southward, in parts of Mull and 

 Morvern, it varies from 50 to 500 or 600 feet. 



The following is the succession at Gruinard Bay : 



Feet. 

 Soft reddisli argillaceous and sandy beds with bands of hard white 



and greenish sandstone ........ 200 



Red anil variegated marls with thin beds of sandstone and concre- 

 tionary limestone ......... 200 



Red argillaceous sandstones and conglomerates, alternating in the 



lower part with masses of coarse breccia-conglomerate . . 500 



Eastern Coast. Small tracts of Trias occur in Elgin and on the 

 coast of Sutherland. The tract in Elgin extends from Spynie, north 

 of Elgin, to the coast at Lossiemouth and Stotfield Head. 16 It 

 rests on the O.R.S., but its base is not exposed. The rock seen in 

 quarries is a white sandstone, massive, fine-grained, and fairly soft, 

 with a thickness of about 200 feet, apparently dipping north, and 

 overlain at Stotfield by a hard, whitish, cherty limestone, which 

 may be 30 feet thick. This sandstone has yielded remains of eight 

 different reptiles : three Rhynchocephalians, Hyperodapedon, Teler- 

 peton, and Stenometopon ; two Crocodiles, Stagnolepis and Erpeto- 

 suchus ; and two Thecodonts, Ornithosuchus and Scleromochlus. 



The same two kinds of rock occur below Dunrobin Castle on 

 the Sutherland coast, i.e. white sandstone dipping north-east, and 

 passing below a cherty rock like that of Stotfield, above which are 

 beds of Liassic age. 



D. THE TRIAS IN EUROPE 

 1. Germany 



Triassic recks occupy large areas in Central and Southern 

 Germany, in Thuringia, Hesse, North Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, and 

 Lorraine ; they are also found in the Eifel district, in Hanover, 

 Brunswick, and Magdeburg, and finally in the island of Heligoland. 

 From the Rhine district they extend westward to Luxemburg, 

 and through the Vosges Mountains into France. They are 

 everywhere divisible into the three series of Bunter, Muschelkalk, 

 and Keuper. 



The German Trias was formed under the same physical and 

 geographical conditions as that of Britain, with which it is prob- 



2B 



