328 [Jan. 31, 



derived from the region where the strata are best developed, the 

 term " rcrmian " was employed. This system was first proposed 

 to embrace the deposits known in Germany as the Rotlie-todte- 

 licgende, Zechstein, Knpferschicfer, 8fc., and in England as Lower 

 New Red Sandstone, Magnesian limestone, &c. 



In eommunicating some of the results of a journey in Poland 

 and Germany dni-ing last sununer, Mr. Murchison, one of the 

 autliors of the present memoir, states that his object is to show 

 tliat his first view concerning the inferior limit of this system is 

 correct — to extend its upper limits, and from the distribution 

 and character of its organic remains to demonstrate that it is of 

 palaeozoic age. 



N<;ar Zwickau in Saxony, and Waldenburg in Upper Silesia, 

 productive coal-fields (in the latter country recumbent on carbo- 

 niferous limestone) are unconformably surmounted by red conglo- 

 merate, sandstone and shale (the rothe-todte-liegende), which in 

 those countries, as in Thuringia and Hesse Cassel, pass con- 

 formably upwards into the Zechstein or its equivalents. The 

 same relations of a lower sandstone to the Magnesian limestone 

 are, indeed, well known in England, and have been pointed out in 

 detail by Professor Sedgwick, Seeing that these two deposits are 

 so intimately associated, few, if any, geologists would wish to dis- 

 unite them ; but the question arises, what is the uppermost limit 

 of this group. In Russia, beds of limestone identilied with the 

 Zechstein and Magnesian limestone by their organic remains are 

 overlaid by a great thickness of marls, sands, and conglomei-ates, 

 containing some of the same types of life as the lower members, 

 particularly the plants which are very closely allied to and are 

 in some instances identical Avith the vegetables of the carboniferous 

 era. It became tiu>refore desirable to ascertain whether similar 

 pakeozoic features were to be found in other parts of Europe. 

 Now in Thuringia and Hesse Cassel, the Zechstein is, in numerous 

 localities, conformably surmounted by red and spotted sandstones, 

 in which no traces of fossils distinct from those of the Permian 

 era are observable, the only land jilant found in them (tlie Cala- 

 mites are/Hirins) being inseparable from well-known carboniferous 

 forms. This overlying sandstone being perfectly conformable to 

 the Zechstein, may, it is conceived (like the overlying sandstones 

 of Russia), be classed with that rock. In making this suggestion, 

 the authors disavow the intention of derogating in any respect 

 from tlie Trias of German geologists, also a tripartite system, and 

 of which the muschelkalk is the centre, with certain red and 

 mottled marls and sands beneath, and the keuper sandstone above. 

 The Ti-iassic system does not contain a single Palaeozoic form, 

 whether aninuil or vegetable, whilst the fauna and flora of the 

 Permian are both so connected with the carboniferous and 

 inferior systems, that they evidently constitute the last remnant of 

 the same era. In the whole geological series, therefoi-e, no two 

 systems are more completely separated than the Permian and tlie 



