156 



Physical Geography. 



On the whole, the same kind of arguments already 

 applied to the Permian strata, may, with increased force, 

 be used in relation to the New Eed Sandstone and marl, 

 especially the occurrence of rock-salt, gypsum, the 

 red colour of the rocks, and the prevalence of the foot- 

 prints and bones of Labyrinthodont Amphibia, and the 

 remains of crocodiles, land lizards, Deinosauria, and 

 plants. To me there remains no trace of a doubt that 

 the New Eed Sandstone was deposited in an inland lake, 

 or lakes, possibly fresh, but probably brackish, and that 



FIG. 33. 



Estlieria minuta. 



Labyrinthodon giganteus. 



Triassic Fossils. 



the overlying Keuper or New Ked Marl beds were 

 formed in a great salt lake, or lakes, if we take all 

 Europe into account. 



But inferences still more striking may be drawn 

 respecting the Physical Geography of the time. 



By referring to the descriptions of the Old Eed 



are known in the Bunter beds, chiefly Ferns, Calamites, Cycads, 

 and Coniferae, and with them fish and Labyrinthodont amphibia, 

 and marine mollusca of the genera Trigonia, Mya, Mytilus, and 

 Posidonia, so few in number, that in connection with the Laby- 

 rinthodonts, &c., they suggest the idea not of an open ocean, but of 

 a salt lake. Teeth of a Marsupial mammal (Microlestes antiquus) 

 occur in a bed between the Keuper and Liassic strata in Wiir- 

 temburg. 



