34 Mr. R. Howse on the Permian System of the 



for the use of the Committee of the Tyneside Naturalists' Field 

 Club, I have on every convenient opportunity been engaged in 

 prosecuting the same studies both in the cabinet and in the field. 

 The works that have appeared since, by Dr.Geinitz and Mr. King, 

 have also been subjected to a very careful examination. By the 

 assistance of fresh specimens and a careful examination of old 

 and new sections, I am enabled to correct many important inac- 

 curacies which the latter author has made, and also to rectify 

 some of my own earlier statements. 



That the distribution of the fossils of this system may be 

 better understood, I have drawn up the following account of the 

 stratigraphical order of these rocks, from notes and sections col- 

 lected during the last fifteen years. All the most important 

 sections were revisited last autumn, to prevent as far as possible 

 any mistake. 



PERMIAN SYSTEM. 



1 . Lower Bunter ? 



A deposit of reddish sandstone appears in two or three places 

 in the south-easternmost part of the county of Durham. It is 

 however generally so completely covered up with alluvium as to 

 admit of very imperfect examination, and its fossils are entirely 

 unknown. 



Loc. Seaton-Carew, Preston-on-Tees, Coatham-Stob. 



2. Magnesian Limestone. 

 Upper. 



1. Upper Yellow Limestone. — A deposit of yellow, earthy, 

 friable, thin-bedded limestone, with occasional beds of fine- 

 grained and of oolitic structure. 



Probable thickness 100 feet. 



Characteristic Fossils. — Myalina squamosa, Sow. ; Myo- 

 concha costata, Brown ; Axinus obscurus. Sow. ; Littorina helicina, 

 Schloth. 



Loc. Boker, Sunderland, Hartlepool. 



2. Conglobated Limestone. — This division consists of beds 

 chiefly of a spheroidal, botryoidal, finely-laminated, close-grained 

 and highly crystalline structure, interstratified with close-bedded, 

 compact layers, and others which are earthy, friable, and pul- 

 verulent. The lower beds are occasionally much contorted and 

 broken up by intrusive brecciated masses. 



Thickness probably more than 150 feet. 

 Char. Foss. — Myalina squamosa, Sow. ; Myoconcha costata ; 

 Axinus obscuruSf Sow. ; Leda speluncaria, Geinitz ; Littorina 



