220 Rev. A. Irving — On the Permian and Trias. 



careful perusal of every one who takes an interest in the question 

 we are engaged in discussing. Space does not permit me to quote 

 from it so fully as I could wish ; but Mr. Davies's general conclusion 

 maj'^ be given in his own words. After pointing out that the St. 

 Bee's Sandstone is the undoubted equivalent of the so-called " Upper 

 Permian" of the north-eastern area, which Sedgwick seems to have 

 regarded as " having more in common with the strata above than 

 with those below," he says, " The more complete the sections are 

 which we obtain (of these beds and the Bunter above them), the less 

 does the supposed break and unconformity become" (p. 24). 



In the face of all that has been now said, we must fail, as com- 

 pletely as the German geologists appear to have failed, to be 

 convinced that there is any place to be found in the classification 

 of the British rocks for an " Upper Permian," and the myth of a 

 " Palceozoic Trias " vanishes from the serious side of the science.^ 



We must now turn our attention for a brief space to the doionioard 

 extension of the Permian or Dyassic system. The first thing we note 

 here (which I do not recollect having seen pointed out before) 

 is the remarkable parallelism between the English and German 

 Permian series in their southerly extension. Every one knows that 

 the upper members (the Magnesiau Limestone and its associated 

 marls) of the northern counties are wanting in the Midlands south 

 of the Trent Valley. Just so in Germany, as we proceed south, the 

 Zechstein formation vanishes. The Dyassic order, as it appears in 

 Thiiringen, on the south of the Harz, and in Saxony, can be traced 

 along the northern side of the Kiesengebirge into Silesia, along 

 the northern slope of the Lausitzer Eange, and in the vicinity of 

 Gorlitz ; and the wide distribution of the system is a fact in favour 

 of the adoption of the Dyas as the normal representative of the 

 system as it occurs in Europe. Soutliward it is no longer so well 

 marked. In Bohemia it is represented by the lower formation only, 

 the Eothliegende ; but here red limestone strata containing PaJceo- 

 niscus Jratislaviensis, Ag., and shales with Xenacanthus Declieni, Beyr., 

 and Acanthodes gracilis, Beyr., intervene between the mechanical 

 deposits. In South Germany the lower formation of the Dyas is 

 widely distributed : it extends from Thiiringerwald southwards, 

 though extensively overlain by later formations, along the south- 

 western slopes of the Fichtelgebirge and the Bohmerwald into 

 Bavaria. One of the largest territories occupied by this formation 

 extends south-west from Hunsriick, where it overlies the productive 

 Coal-measures. It contains here feeble traces of Coal (as the 

 corresponding deposits do in the South Staffordshire country), and 

 consists of conglomerates, shales, and sandstones, as usual. The 

 shales contain numerous nodules of clay-ironstone, with remains of 

 Amblypterus macropterus, Bronn., and Archegosaurus Declieni, Goldf. 

 The strata are often bi'oken through by porphyries and melaphyres." 



1 Though still recognized in Student's Elements (Lyell), it is rejected by Six A. 

 Eamsay in his Manual of British Geology ; vide p. 30. 



- Credner, El. d. Geol. pp. 482, 483. See also pp. 473-477 of the same work 

 for a good account of the eruptive rocks (' Gesteineruptionen ') which intersect the 

 EotMiegende of Germany. 



