THE NEW RED SANDSTONE SYSTEM. 



709 



At the foot of these mountains coal-measures are found, above which are unconformable 

 strata of the lower new red sandstone, gres rouge, and gres de Vosges. The latter is covered 

 by the gres bigarres, or variegated sandstone, the intermediate beds, which are wanting, 

 having probably been denuded off, as the surface of the gres de Vosges exhibits consider- 

 able degradation. This is overlain by the smoke-grey limestone, or muschelkalk, and then 

 the marls occur, called marnes irisees, from their varied hues. But both in France and 

 Germany the upper part of the series constitutes a separate system, under the name of 

 terrain keuprique, or trias, from being readily divisible into three principal groups, 

 those named at the head of the table,- which contain many remains of terrestrial plants. 



Voltzia heterophylla. 

 Phterophyllum Pleiningerii. 



Coniferse and Cycadeae. The cut represents an extinct genus of Coniferae, named 

 Voltzia, found in the neighbourhood of Strasburg ; and a species of Cycadeae. 



The new red sandstone series occupies a vast extent of the area of England. From 

 the river Exe, in Devonshire, it extends in a thin and interrupted line northward 

 towards the midland counties, where it acquires great expansion, reaching from the east 

 of Nottingham, westward by Derby, Ashbourn, Newcastle-under-Lyme, to the borders of 

 Wales, a distance of seventy or eighty miles. It there becomes forked, the right fork 

 running up the basin of the Trent with a considerable breadth, passing through York- 

 shire to the county of Durham, where it forms the east coast, and terminates with a 

 narrow slip south of the Tyne. The left fork starts from a base which comprises almost 

 the whole of Cheshire^ and runs in a narrow devious course from the estuary of the 

 Mersey, at Liverpool, through the centre of Lancashire, to the northern part of the 

 county. There are several small detachments of the system, and a large outlier appears 

 in Cumberland, which embraces the whole plain of Carlisle. From immediately overlying 

 the coal-measures, this great formation has become one of the special sites of commercial 

 enterprise, nineteen of our principal cities and chief seats of manufacture from Exeter to 

 Carlisle being located on strata belonging to it. Mr. Conybeare notices the prevailing 

 red colour of the soil of this district as having given to many places their local names ; 

 in Exeter, to Rougemont Castle^ now a prison ; in Somersetshire, to Radford, Red-hill, and 

 Redcliff; in Gloucestershire, to Redbrook ; in Worcestershire, to Red Marley ; in Not- 

 tinghamshire, to Retford, Radford, Ratcliffe* and Red-hill, at the junction of the Trent 

 and Soar ; in Yorkshire, to Red Mire, Red Ho, and Red Bar Rocks, which appear on the 

 sea- coast between Guisborough and Hartlepool. The general aspect of the district 

 exhibits a series of levels, with gently undulating ridges, but without any considerable 



