320 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— C. 



forty years ago by influential members of the British Geological Survey, including 

 H. B. Woodward, J. B. Jukes-Browne, and J. G. Goodchild, was based on the views 

 that most of the rocks were iron-stained Carboniferous, and that the fauna was a 

 stunted survival from that system ; those authors adopted Conybeare and Phillips' 

 term Poikilitic for both Permian and Trias. The rejection of the Permian was then 

 supported by de Lapparent, Waagen and others ; it is still urged in America by 

 C. R. Keyes and in Russia by Noinsky and Jakolev, who regard the Permian as the 

 littoral representative of the Carboniferous. Under the influence of Goodchild, in 

 1896 (in Great Rift Valley) I included the East African Permian in the Carboniferous. 



The question does not depend on British stratigraphy but on that of countries 

 where the System is better represented and especially by marine faunas. Modern 

 opinion appears in favour of the System from three main lines of evidence. First, the 

 great advance in life. The flora is marked by a great development of gymnosperms, 

 but is nevertheless pre-Triassic. The fauna shows a great advance in several groups : 

 thus, among the Foraminifera, the Carboniferous Fusulina and Schivagerina are 

 followed by Neoschwagerina, Doliolina, and Verheekina. The Cephalopods contain 

 the first true Ammonites with the Medlicottidse restricted to the Period. The 

 Permian is characterised by the appearance of the main division of Acanthopterygian. 

 Fish — the Protospondyli. The Reptiles, as Prof. Watson in his speech has shown, 

 are alone sufficient to mark the Permian as a valid and important System. 



Its fauna was affected by the extinction of many Palaeozoic types. Some Rugose 

 Corals and some typically Palaeozoic genera such as Spirifera lived on ; but they also 

 survived the Trias, and the corals of this type were still locally important in the 

 Portlandian. 



The Permian is also memorable as one of the greatest mountain-building eras in 

 the earth's history. During it, was upraised the great Altaid Mountain System, of 

 which the Hercynian, Armorican and Appalachian are local representatives. The 

 most important stratigraphical break was the Saalian of Stille, between the Lower 

 and Middle Permian, and not that (Pfalzian) between the Middle and Upper Series. 



The inclusion of the Permian in the Carboniferous would make that System too 

 cumbrous. Between the Devonian and Trias six series are generally recognised — 

 Lower, Middle and Upper Series of both Carboniferous and Permian. At one time 

 the palseontological separation of the Uralian (Upper Carboniferous) from the 

 Artinskian (Lower Permian) was doubtful ; but further knowledge of the Artinskian 

 fauna justifies its separation. 



The objection to the Permian as a System on the ground that its upper and lower 

 boundaries are indefinite would apply also to the Cambrian, Ordovician,and Devonian. 



The overwhelming balance of current opinion, especially in countries where the 

 Permian is well developed, adopts it as an important and well-based system. The 

 present tendency in America is not to drop the name Permian but the Carboniferous 

 by dividing the Upper Palaeozoic into three systems, the Mississippian, Pennsylvanian, 

 and Permian. 



Prof. G. A. HiCKLiNG. — The supposed relation of the Permian and Triassic rocks 

 has undoubtedly been influenced by the placing of the boundary of the Paleozoic 

 and Mesozoic between them, with a supposed physical and palasontological break. 

 Consequently the evidence advanced some years ago by Dr. Sherlock indicating that 

 some of the Magnesian Limestone of Yorkshire was contemporary with part of the 

 Bunter Sandstone of Nottingham was received with some scepticism. Nevertheless, 

 subsequent investigation has tended to confirm the general conformity of the Trias 

 with the Permian and to show that some of the sandstones formerly mapped as 

 Bunter pass laterally into rocks containing Permian fossils. In the neighbourhood 

 of Manchester the Bunter Sandstones are clearly separated from the underlying 

 Permian Sandstones by some 200 to 240 feet of fossiliferous Permian marl with thin 

 limestones. Followed westward, within 25 miles, the marls then lose most of their 

 fossils and limestones, become sandy and finally diappear. The underlying Permian 

 Sandstones are then inseparable from the Bunter, and are more or less represented 

 by the Lower Mottled Sandstone division of that formation. This view was held many 

 years ago by Binney, and is fully substantiated by recent borings. In Cumberland, 

 the recent mapping has failed to show any evidence of a break between the beds 

 above and below the thin band of Magnesian Limestone which is accepted as the 

 local top of the Permian. Dr. Bernard Smith has shown that the whole Permo- 

 Triassic sequence of Cumberland is closely similar to that in south Durham, except 



