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and which he has obligingly submitted to the examination of 

 M. de Verneuil and myself, that I have not much dovibt of these 

 gypsiferous deposits and associated limestones of Nova Scotia, 

 being absolutely the same as the Permian rocks of Russia. Even 

 lithologically there is the greatest similarity, whether in the large 

 rock-masses of gypsum, red and green marls, conglomerates and sand- 

 stones, or in the magnesian and sandy limestones ; and when we 

 compare the fossils submitted to us, the parallelism is as tirmly 

 established as can be, between any two groups of the same age 

 in distant localities. It is not merely that these American strata con- 

 tain a few species identical with forms which typify the Magnesian 

 Limestone of England, the Zechstein of Germany and the Permian 

 rocks of Russia, but still more that such beds immediately overlying 

 the carboniferous deposits, and even, according to Mr. Lyell, par- 

 taking of some of their flexures, should be found to contain exactly 

 the same distribution of genera, and as near as possible the same 

 proportions of species in each genus as in the synchronous de- 

 posits of Europe ! Again, the fossils of this group are, for the 

 most f)art, as badly preserved and limited in species in America 

 as in Europe, and the striking agreement of those which can 

 be detected is therefore the more remarkable. Even in nega- 

 tive proofs the similitude is great ; for wherever these deposits have 

 been traced eastward through Europe and to the confines of Asia, 

 they have been found to be singularly deficient in chambered shells, 

 and such Mr. Lyell finds to be the case in the various localities ex- 

 amined by him in North America. But having already sufficiently 

 called your attention to the striking points of agreement between 

 the American and Russian formations, I anticipate the pleasure you 

 will shortly experience when Mr. Lyell brings the subject, as he in- 

 tends to do, before the Society. 



Seeing the great variety of lithological aspects of these strata in 

 Russia^ and that the flora as well as the fauna are of a type di- 

 stinct from those of the carboniferous age, we proposed the name 

 Permian, a term which I trust may be considered more applicable 

 to the equally diversified deposits of North America than " Zech- 

 stein" or " Magnesian Limestone," — names which point to one mem- 

 ber only of this complex series as seen in Russia, and where it oc- 

 cupies a region larger than the v/hole kingdom of France ! 



Mr. Logan having also stated that he found slabs in some rocks 

 in the bay of Fundy, which he considers to be of the same age, and 

 which exhibit footmarks on their surface, is it possible, I would ask, 

 to connect with the same formation, the red and green marls of the 

 valley of Connecticut, though distant 400 miles, in which Ornithich- 

 nites occur, and which also contain remains of Palteoniscus, a genus 

 of fish very characteristic of the Permian rocks ? To this question 

 we shall again revert under the head of Palaeontology, in consider- 

 ing the Ornithichnites of Connecticut*. 



* Since the Anniversary of the Society the fossils of the gypsiferous rocks 

 of Nova Scotia collected by Mr. Logan have been examined by Mr. Phillips, 



