Rev. A. Irving — The Permian-Triaa Question. 323 



between the two is found to be as sharply defined as that between 

 the Carboniferous and the lowest strata of the Dyas ; " in fact, 

 "the strata of the 'grey conglomerate' or lowest Eothliegende are 

 never found unconformable with the Coal-measures, but here it is 

 generally the case." It is absurd for any one to say that this is 

 a mere 'fad' of Geinitz's : every one with whom I have discussed 

 the question in Germany holds the same view, and I may especially 

 mention Dr. Liebe of Gera, who has mapped a great part of the 

 country in the Gera district, as supj)orting the view. Not a scrap of 

 fossil evidence has ever come to hand, with the exception of the 

 wretched (so-called) Calamites arenaceus, upon which Murchison laid 

 so much stress. On this point, to set aside all further room for 

 doubt, I quote from M. Marcou's Dyas et Trias, published in Geneva 

 in 1859. On p. 10 he says: "Le Calamites arenaceus, Brong., n'est 

 autre que V Equisetum columuare, Brong., ainsi que I'ont prouve Bronn, 

 Quenstedt, et surtout le docteur Constantin von Ettingshausen dans 

 Beitrag zur naheren Kenntniss der Calamiten (extrait des Sitzung. der 

 mathem. naturw. Classe der K. AJcad. der Wissenschaften, vol. ix. 

 p. 684, Vienne, 1852).^ M. Ettingshausen demontre, dans cat 

 interessant memoire, que le Calamites arenaceus est la partie interne 

 de V Equisetum columnar e, que ce fossile est exclusivement secondaire, 

 et qu'il est I'un des plus caracteristiques {Leitpflanzen) du trias. 

 Par consequent, paleontologiquement, le bunter sandstein inferieur 

 est du trias, et comme, d'un autre cote, les caracteres lithologiques et 

 stratigraphiques, sont entierement en faveur de sa reunion avec le 

 bunter superieur, et non avec le zechstein, il s'ensuit que Ton ne voit 

 aucune raison plausible pour I'enlever du trias." 



Again, for any one to talk of the palseontological evidence of the 

 Paleeozoic affinities of the two great formations of the Dyas (Zechstein 

 and Eothliegende) as depending upon the presence or absence of 

 one or two miserable little shells (or casts of them), can only pro- 

 voke a smile from any one who will take the trouble only to look 

 leisurely even through the plates of Geinitz's splendid monograph ; 

 and if he will only seize the first opportunity of examining the 

 splendid collection of Dyas fossils in the Zwinger Museum at 

 Dresden, and compare them with the equally splendid collection in 

 the same gallery of Carboniferous fossils ; further, if he should be 

 so fortunate as to go to Gera with an introduction to my delightful 

 friend Herr Eisel, who has collected a great number of the most 

 perfect and choice specimens of Zechstein fossils in the world (many 

 single specimens of which furnished the originals from which 

 Geinitz's drawings were made) ; if then he should go on to the 

 Geologische Eeichsanstalt at Vienna, and see the flora of the Coal- 

 bearing Eothliegende of Bohemia there displayed side by side with 

 the flora of the Coal-measures, I think the impression left upon his 

 mind will be that, while, on the one hand, the fossil evidence 

 furnished by our Post-Carboniferous PalEeozoic strata is compara- 

 tively meagre, the evidence furnished by the strata of the Dyas of 



1 I merely note the fact that this was three years prior to the appearance of 

 Murchison and Morris's paper in the Q. J. G. S. 



