PERMIAN AGE AND CLOSE OF THE PALEOZOIC. 161 



purpose; and, like the stubble of last year, must be 

 turned under by the plough, that it may make way 

 for a new verdure. The plough passed over it, and 

 the winter of the Permian came, and then the spring 

 of a new age. 



The Permian and the succeeding Triassic are some- 

 what chilly and desolate periods of the earth's history. 

 The one is the twilight of the Palaeozoic day, the other 

 is the dawn of the Mesozoic. Yet to the philosophical 

 geologist no ages excel them in interest. They are 

 times of transition, when old dynasties and races pass 

 away and are replaced by new and vigorous successors, 

 founding new empires and introducing new modes of 

 life and action. 



Three great leading points merit our attention in 

 entering on the Permian age. The first is the earth- 

 movements of the period. The second is the resulting 

 mineral characteristics of the deposits formed. The 

 third is the aspect of the animal and vegetable life of 

 this age in their relation more especially to those which 

 preceded. 



With respect to the first point above named, the 

 earth's crust was subjected in the Permian period to 

 some of the grandest movements which have occurred 

 in the whole course of geologic time, and we can fix 

 the limits of these, in Europe and America at least, 

 with some distinctness. If we examine the Permian 

 rocks in England and Germany, we shall find that 

 they generally lie on the upturned edges of the 

 preceding Carboniferous beds. In other v/ords, the 



M 



