370 STRATIGRAPHICAL GEOLOGY 



ably continuous under the bed of the North Sea ; in other words, 

 the British area was part of a much larger Germanic region. The 

 German Bunter and Keuper may both be regarded as salt-lake 

 or lagoon deposits, and though the fossils of the Muschelkalk 

 are marine, yet its fauna is not a large one, and is evidently 

 that of an inland sea which was only temporarily connected 

 with the open sea to the south. The area over which these 

 limestones occur may be regarded as including what was the 

 deepest part of the great depression occupied by this inland sea. 



The subdivisions of the German Trias and their average 

 thicknesses are given in the following table : 



Feet. 



f "Steinmergel," marls without gypsum . 300 to 500 



Keuper-{ Gypsiferous red and green marls . . 500 to 700 



(Kohlenkeuper ...... 200 



Muschelkalk in three stages ..... 600 to 1000 



( Upper Bunter marls ..... 300 



Bunter -j Middle Bunter sandstones . . . 700 to 1000 

 [Lower shaly sandstones .... 300 to 500 



3000 to 4000 



The Bunter. This is essentially a sandstone series. The 

 lower stage in Northern and Central Germany consists of dark- 

 red flaggy sandstones, which succeed with apparent conformity the 

 clays of the Upper Zechstein, but in Western Germany they 

 overstep the whole of the Permian, and rest on the crystalline 

 schists of the Odenwald and the Black Forest. The rest of the 

 Lower Bunter consists of fine-grained micaceous sandstones of 

 various colours, often speckled, and often including angular 

 fragments of red clay ; there are also some layers of dolomitic 

 sandstone (Rogensteiii). (See Fig. 122.) Fossils are rare. 



The main mass of the Bunter sandstone (or Middle Bunter) 

 consists of coarse quartzose sandstones, which generally show 

 current bedding and have a maximum thickness of 1000 feet. 

 No fossils except tracks of Labyrinthodonts have been found. 



The Upper Bunter or Both consists of variegated red and green 

 marls with beds of gypsum and rock-salt. In Thuringia these beds 

 contain layers of dolomitic limestone with marine fossils (Myophoria 

 costata, M. vulgaris, and other species which also occur in the 

 Muschelkalk). Westward in the Eifel, the Vosges, and Lorraine 

 the B,oth passes into fine argillaceous sandstones containing plant 

 remains, Voltzia, Schizoneura, and Anomopteris. 



Muschelkalk. This is a limestone series, and takes its name 

 from the abundance of bivalve shells (" muscheln ") in many of its 

 beds. It is divisible into three stages. 



