584 HISTORY OF GEOLOGY. 



geologists who first tried to apply the Wernerian 

 series to this country, conceived the Old and New 

 red Sandstone of England to be the same with the 

 Old and New red Sandstone of Werner; whereas 

 Werner's Old red, the Rothe todte liegende, is 

 above the coal, while the English Old red is below 

 it. This mistake led to a further erroneous identi- 

 fication of our Mountain Limestone with Werner's 

 First Flotz Limestone ; and caused an almost inex- 

 tricable confusion, which, even at a recent period, 

 has perplexed the views of German geologists re- 

 specting this country. Again, the Lias of England 

 was, at first, supposed to be the equivalent of the 

 Muschelkalk of Germany. But the errour of this 

 identification was brought into view by examina- 

 tions and discussions in which MM. CEyenhausen 

 and Dechen took the lead; and at a later period, 

 Professor Sedgwick, by a laborious examination of 

 the strata of England, was enabled to show the 

 true relation of this part of the geology of the two 

 countries. According to him, the New red Sand- 

 stone of England, considered as one great complex 

 formation, may be divided into seven members, 

 composed of sandstones, limestones, and marls ; five 

 of which represent respectively the Rothe todte lie- 

 gende; the Kupfer schiefer ; the Zechstein, (with 

 the Rauchwacke, Asche, and Stinkstein of the Thur- 

 ingenwald;) the Bunter sandstein; and the Keuper: 

 while the Muschelkalk, which lies between the two 

 last members of the German list, has not yet been 



