188 THE SECONDARY AGES. 



forefathers has been separated into two distinct systems 

 the " Permian " or Lower New Eed, so called by Sir Eoderick 

 Murchison because typically displayed in the province of 

 Perm in Eussia ; and the " Triassic " or Upper New Eed, so 

 named by the German geologists because consisting of three 

 well-marked series of strata, the Bunter or variegated sand- 

 stone, the Muschelkalk or shell-limestone, and the Keuper 

 or copper-marls. Adopting this view and it is more by 

 nature of the fossils than by the character of the sediments 

 that the relative antiquity of strata can be satisfactorily 

 determined the secondary ages, which form the subject of 

 the present sketch, comprehend the Triassic, Oolitic, and 

 Chalk systems, whose chronological place will be best under- 

 stood, perhaps, by a glance at the annexed tabulation : 



CAINOZOIC ~i 



or f Quaternary or Eecent Accumulations. 



TERTIARY. /Tertiary. 



MESOZOIC ( Cretaceous or Chalk. 



or < Oolitic or Jurassic. 



SECONDARY. I Triassic or Upper New Ked Sandstone. 



/Permian'or Lower New Red Sandstone. 



I Carboniferous or Coal. 



j Old Eed Sandstone and Devonian. 



^ Silurian. 

 PRIMARY. Cambrian. 



I Laurentian. 



These secondary systems the Trias, Oolite, and Chalk 

 hold a middle place, as it were, in geological history, less 

 obscure than the primary, but still not so obvious either in 

 their vital or geographical arrangements as the tertiary and 

 recent. The mode in which their strata have been aggre- 

 gated is for the most part apparent, and their fossils, though 

 differing widely in genera and species from existing forms, 

 have still more of a new-world aspect about them, and the 

 palaeontologist feels he has less difficulty in establishing 

 their botanical and zoological relations. Unless in highly 



