TRIAS— COAL. 6^ 



they are developed in Germany. The German portion, 

 judging by its influxes, must be regarded as a forma- 

 tion of strands and bays ; its more highly integrated 

 equivalent in the Alps as a huge oceanic deposit. The 

 Muschelkalk (which is missing in England), with its 

 layers of rock salt and rich remains of oceanic organisms, 

 is likewise a marine formation. Of the origin of the 

 stratified variegated sandstone, so-called from its varied 

 colouring, with its clays, marls, and frequent vast enclo- 

 sures of gypsum, w^e obtain some idea from our present 

 formations of sandy shores and dune^. Like these, the 

 deposition of the variegated sandstone afforded but 

 scanty opportunities of enclosing animal and vegetal 

 remains, but very notable footprints have been preserved, 

 such as might now be formed and preserved, if the 

 marks imprinted on the damp sand were filled up with 

 fine clayey particles torn by a storm from some adjacent 

 shore, and subdivided in the sea, 



As the diversified appearance of the superimposed 

 planes of antediluvian plants and animals of course 

 depends essentially on the nature of their former abodes, 

 and as the nature of the individual districts of each 

 plane must then, as now, have influenced the character 

 of the organisms by which it was inhabited, we will 

 indicate the causes which thus affect life in its form and 

 manifold variety. In order to complete our view of the 

 origin of the Earth's crust, and the dependence of the 

 organic on the configuration of the inorganic world, we 

 will leave a geologist, Credner, to describe the relations 

 of the dyassic and carboniferous formations : " In regions 

 where the carboniferous (coal) formation is typically 

 developed, it consists of a series of stratifications, the 



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