340 Prof. W. King's Notes on Permian Fossils. 



land^ scarcely any have been found in beds above what I have 

 termed the " fossiliferous limestone;'' — the fossils occurring in 

 the higher members, namely the " brecciated and pseudo-brec- 

 ciated/' and the "crystalline and non-crystalline" limestones*, 

 being principally Gasteropods and Lamellibranchs. The same 

 remarkable fact appears to obtain in Germany ; inasmuch as 

 Brachiopods have rarely been noticed hitherto above the true 

 Zechsteins, or dolomites ; the overlying beds, namely Rauch- 

 wacke, &c., only containing species for the most part identical 

 with fossils occurring in the uppermost North of England Per- 

 miansf. The consideration of these facts induces me to place 

 the magnesian limestones of Cultra and Tullycounel in the upper 

 part of the Permian system ; as they contain no palliobranchiate 

 fossils. I would likewise place the magnesian limestone of St. 

 Bees' Head on the same parallel, Mr. Binney having discovered 

 therein "casts oi BaheveUia, Schizodus, and other shells" J. 

 The marls in the neighbourhood of Manchester, loaded with 

 similar fossils, I am also disposed to consider as the equivalents 

 of the upper synchi-onous Permians, whether in England or 

 Germany. 



Belmont, near Galway, Feb. 20, 1856. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE XII. 



Fig. 1. Productus Geinitzianus,'DQ'Konva.c^. Large valve a little enlarged : 



fi-om Gera. 2. Small valve. 

 Fig. 3. Productus Schaurothianus, King. Umbonal view of large valve : 



tvA'iee the natural size ; from Rojjsen. 4. Front view. 5. Small 



valve. 

 Fig. 6. 1 Aulosteges umbonillatus. King. Interior of small valve, showing 



muscular impressions a, and reniform ditto b : a little enlarged. 



A gutta-percha impression of a specimen from Possneck. 



* Monograph, Introduction, p. xvii. 



t M. Robert Eisel, of Gera, son of Professor Eisel, informs me that 

 Productus Cancrini {query, Strophalosia Morrisiana,va.r. Hiimbletonensis) 

 occurs in the Graner Mergelzechstein of that locahty. This deposit, and 

 the overlying Rauchwacke, &c., I consider to be equivalent to the brecciated, 

 pseudo-brecciated, crystalline and non-crystalline limestones of the North 

 of England. The former overlie the highly fossiliferous Zechsteins of 

 Germany ; and the latter repose on the English fossiliferous and com))act 

 limestones. The presence of a Brachiopod so high in the sjstem, corre- 

 sponds with the occasional occurrence of Strophalosia Morrisiana in the 

 breccia of Claxheugh {vide ' Monograph,' p. 102) ; and it seems to be 

 paralleled by the existence, lately made known by Professor Ramsay, of 

 casts of a Strophalosia-like shell in the sandstones of Exhall, Wai-wick- 

 sliire. These sandstones I am disposed to place much higher in the Per- 

 mian system than Professor Ramsay seems to sanction {vide Quarterly 

 Journal of the Geol. Soc, vol. xi. part 1. p. 198). 



.j; Vide Memoir " On the Permian Beds of the North -West of England," 

 in Mem. of the Lit. and Phil. Soc. of Manchester, vol. xii. 



