W. A. E. Ussher — Permian in Devonshire. 249 



section only, can be regarded as conclusive. The local clusters of 

 volcanic patches frona Exeter northwards may not he on the same 

 horizon. As regards the Bunter, if we assume the Straight Point 

 (east of Exmouth) Sandstones to be Upper Bunter, this probable 

 correlation favours the Middle Trias age assigned to the Lower 

 Marls in 1878. No evidence has been adduced to invalidate ray 

 classification of the Keuper from the Pebble beds of Budleigh 

 Salterton upwards. I may say that Mr. Geo. Spencer Perceval, in 

 three letters to the " Western Morning News " in 1877 or 1878 (I 

 forget which year), disputed my classification of the Budleigh 

 Salterton Pebble bed in the Keuper, maintaining that it represented 

 the Bunter Pebble beds ; this naturally deprives Prof. Hull's recent 

 communication to the Geological Society of the charm of novelty 

 for me. 



My old friend Mr. P. 0. Hutchinson, of Sidmouth, in 1878, found 

 remains of an Eqiiisetum-like plant in greenish shaly sandstone in. 

 the lower part of the Keuper Marls near Sidmouth ; this occurrence 

 suggests a possible comparison with the " Schilf (Reed) s!indstone " 

 of the Middle Keuper of the Eifel. But an Equisetum {E. Mougeoti) 

 occurs in the Upper Bunter sandstone of the Eifel as Herr von 

 Eeinach informs me, so that no reliance can be placed on this 

 suggestion. I take this opportunity of recording the recent dis- 

 covery (a few months ago) of quartz porphyry giving place upwards 

 and outwards to a rock resembling a mica andesite and identical 

 with specimens from one of the volcanic patches associated with 

 the New Eed of the Crediton Valley. This discovery was made at 

 the eastern termination of the Thurlstone New Red Outlier. In 

 connexion with it I quote the following passage from my paper ^ 

 before referred to: — "The breccias frequently contain igneous frag- 

 ments distinctly referable to the destruction of such igneous patches 

 as those of Washfield, Kellerton, etc. The outflow of these lavas 

 seems generally to have accompanied or heralded the earliest deposi- 

 tion of Triassic sediments in the districts in which they occur ; nor 

 does it appear impossible that the eruption of quartz porphyries may 

 have been in some way connected icith their appearance.^' 



The late Professor Ramsay inspected the New Red Rocks in 1880, 

 and failed to find any sufficient proof for the correlation of the lower 

 breccias with the Permian of the Midlands. There is not a shred 

 of proof that the two areas were connected until the Keuper, and 

 probably at a late stage in that period. The Midland sections owe 

 their importance as a basis for correlation entirely to the merits of 

 the assumed correctness of their classification with reference to the 

 German types. For much information on the characters of the 

 German types I am indebted to my friend Herr von Reinaoh, whose 

 acquaintance with them is most intimate. Until I have the oppor- 

 tunity of availing myself of his kind ofi"er to show me the rocks on 

 the ground, or until new facts are brought to light in Devon, I fail 

 to see that the literature of the New Eed Rocks of Devon and West 



1 Quart. Joum. Geol. Soc. for Aug. 1878, p. 462. 



