THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES. DECADE III. VOL. I. 



No. III.— MARCH, 1884. 



o:Rxc3rXisr.A.Tj ..a.:rtio3l:es. 



L — On the Pekmian-Teias Question. > 



By Jules Marcou, For. Memb. Geol. Soc. Lond. 

 fllHE Eev. A. Irving, in the .January Number of the Geological 

 i Magazine, p. 46, writes : " The argument then in favour of the 

 retention of the name ' Permian ' (as against e.g. that of ' Dyas ') is 

 based on no logical consistency with established geological nomen- 

 clature. It is an excellent local name for the Kussian series, but 

 as a general term for the European series it is highly misleading." 



A few quotations from memoirs and geological maps on Eussia 

 ■will show that the term 'Permian ' is even more objectionable and 

 misleading for the Russian series than for any other parts of Europe. 



Murchison defined his proposed system, and affirmed the non- 

 existence of the Triassic series, in his great work Russia and the 

 Ural Mountains, vol. i. 1845, in the following manner: — "Our Per- 

 mian System embraces everything which was deposited between the 

 conclusion of the Carboniferous epoch and the commencement of the 

 Triassic series," pp. 140, 141, excluding " the Eothe-todte-liegende 

 of Germany from our Eussian natural group." Farther at p. 182, 

 we read : " We have not indeed any sort of evidence to prove that 

 the masses we are describing constitute a portion of the Trias of 



Europe simply considering it a great and copious cover of the 



Permian system." " On the whole, however, we confess we 



are disposed to view these variegated sands and marls like those of 

 Orenburg as a part of the Permian system." Finally, p. 193 ; 

 "Mount Bogdo. — Having already stated that we have no proof of the 

 existence of rocks of the age of the Trias in the central region 

 of Eussia " 



As Murchison placed then the Eothe-todte-liegende in the Carbon- 

 iferous, and did not recognize the Trias (except at Mount Bogdo), 

 or the Lias, or the Lower Oolite in Eussia, his ' Permian System,' 

 as defined by him, comprehended in one lump all the Eussian rocks 

 existing between the Eothe-todte-liegende and the Oxfordian or 

 Middle Oolite rocks, which, according to Murchison, " occupy a 

 region more than twice the size of the whole Kingdom of France " 

 [Russia, p. 137). 



If we look at MurcLison's Geological Map of Russia, we see the 

 'Permian' marked No. 4 occupying almost half of the Eussian 

 Enapire in Europe. The Trias marked No. 5 is reduced to a small 



DECADE III. — VOL. I. — NO. III. 



