CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



reed, rising high into the air, like the bamboo, with 

 its joints and leafy branchlets ; and many more 

 equally beautiful and well preserved. 



The animal remains found are numerous and 

 strange. Corals are abundant and beautiful. But 

 no sea-creature was more common than the 

 encrinite? which rose on its long jointed lily-like 

 stalk, and head with its hundred fingers, that 

 moved on all sides to secure its prey, like the 

 anemone of our own seas. The remains of 

 encrinites are in some places so abundant as to 

 form thick beds of limestone, called Encrinital 

 Limestone ; and when these, hard as marble, are 

 polished, they present a most beautiful surface, 

 through which is seen the exquisite carving of the 

 encrinite stars. The little joints of the stems are 

 often found detached, with a hole through the 

 centre ; these are known as Fairy Beads and as 

 St Cuthbert's Beads ; and when strung together, 

 were used as a rosary, and no more beautiful 

 ornament was ever hung round the neck of a 

 saint. We also find star-fishes and sea-urchins ; 

 and the spines of the latter may be seen running 

 through the limestone like threads of burnished 

 silver. The shells are very numerous and varied ; 

 univalves and bivalves of both sea and land being 

 everywhere found, and some of these can hardly 

 be distinguished from shells gathered on our own 

 shores, so perfect are they in form, colour, and 

 structure. They may be detached from the rock, 

 and collections made of them as easily as of 

 modern shells. We find also crustaceans of 

 different kinds ; and the last trilobites are found 

 in the Coal-measures. Fishes are numerous and 

 formidable, but less so than in the Old Red 

 Period. Reptiles in both salt and fresh water 

 have also left their remains, and their footprints 

 may be seen on certain sandstones, as distinct as 

 if made but yesterday on the soft mud. 



Scenery of Period. In this remarkable period 

 there stretched wide shallow seas, in which sported 

 huge sharks, and whose waters washed the shores 

 of many islands, guarded by great coral reefs, 

 where the beautiful encrinite spread its waving 

 arms. By the shores lived numerous shells, often 

 in immense beds, that now form the mussel- 

 band of the miner; and into these seas flowed 

 Amazonian rivers, bearing into the deep the spoils 

 of their wooded and reedy shores. By their wide 

 estuaries and along their banks lay extensive 

 impassable swamps and jungles, in which gigantic 

 reeds, calamites, and tree-ferns flourished in 

 tropical luxuriance. Amidst these lurked fierce 

 crocodiles and mighty lizards, which have left 

 their footprints on the yielding mud. The whole 

 surface of the land was covered with tall pines 

 and tree-ferns ; the seal-palm, the scale-tree, and 

 star-leaf shot into the air in impenetrable thickets, 

 shaking their numerous cones in the breeze, while 

 the hum of insects sounded through their still 

 recesses. In the distance might be seen towering 

 snow-peaks, and here and there the smoke of the 

 volcano, the existence of which was felt in the 

 numerous earthquakes that shook the ground. 



V I. P ERMIAN SYSTEM. 



Description. Immediately above the Carbon- 

 iferous strata, we find certain strata that used to 

 be called, as already explained, the New Red 



1 From Greek trinan, a lily. 



Sandstone, in contrast with the rocks below them, 

 called the Old Red Sandstone. This New Red 

 Sandstone series has been of late more thoroughly 

 examined, and found to consist of two distinct 

 portions, whose remains are so different that the 

 series has been formed into two distinct systems, 

 known as Permian and Triassic. The name 

 Permian has been given to the system we now 

 describe, from being developed very extensively 

 in Perm, a province in the north-east of Russia. 

 These rocks are found in many parts of the world, 

 and largely in Scotland, England, Germany, and 

 Russia, They consist of red and whitish sand- 

 stones, shales, and limestones, containing much 

 magnesia. The rocks are remarkably variegated 

 in colour, so much so as to be called the Variegated 

 System ; while the limestone receives the distinc- 

 tive name of the Magnesian Limestone. As the 

 old name suggests, the sandstone is of a reddish 

 hue, and the two chief rocks, therefore, are the 

 Red Sandstone and the Magnesian Limestone. 

 The sandstones are used for building, as are also 

 the limestones, which have been employed in the 

 construction of the Houses of Parliament Copper 

 is also extensively obtained from one of its shales 

 in Germany, and also lead and zinc, but not very 

 abundantly. 



Organic Remains. The plants resemble greatly 

 those of the Coal-measures. We find sea-weed, 

 fine-leaved ferns, tall calamites and reeds, great 

 pines with cones, tree-ferns, and palms like the 

 modern fan-palm. The animal remains are not 

 nearly so numerous as in the coal rocks. There 

 are sponges, corals, sea-urchins, and beautiful 

 shells. We also find fishes like those of the Coal- 

 measures ; and the Permian is remarkable as the 

 system where the ancient form of tail, in which 

 the spine of the fish was continued into the upper 

 lobe of the tail, becomes almost extinct, seldom to 

 appear again. The reptiles of this system are 

 numerous and perfectly developed, some of them 

 being of gigantic form. Their footprints, in par- 

 ticular, are remarkably abundant and large, and 

 from these alone, the whole animal has been con- 

 structed by learned men, the truth of their draw- 

 ings being proved by subsequent discovery of the 

 entire creature. Even pouched animals, like the 

 kangaroo, are found in the American Permian, 

 thus shewing a gradual but slow approach to 

 modern life forms. 



Scenery of Period. The Carboniferous Period 

 was remarkable for the great activity of volcanic 

 agents, but this period seems to have been com- 

 paratively tranquil in this respect. The rivers 

 carried in their waters much iron, as they did in 

 the Old Red Period ; the seas appear to have 

 been shallow, bearing in solution magnesia and 

 salt, while animal and vegetable life seems scarce, 

 as compared with other epochs. From the exist- 

 ence of a rough conglomerate in the west of 

 England, it has been argued that the greater 

 part of the period was one of glacial action, 

 with icebergs bearing blocks and rounded debris ; 

 and if this was the case, we have a conclusive 

 explanation of the scarcity of life during this 

 period. 



V I I. T RIASSIC SYSTEM. 



Description. The upper part of the old system, 

 known as the New Red Sandstone, has received 



