1856.] HARKNESS PERMIAN ROCKS OF SCOTLAND. 267 



land and the Craigs near Dumfries to be of the same age. Sir Charles 

 Lyell and myself had an opportunity of examining the Westmoreland 

 strata above referred to, and can acquiesce in the conclusions con- 

 cerning relative position and mineral character. Sir Roderick Mur- 

 chison had some years before adopted the opinion of the Permian 

 age of the Dumfries series*, and was the first to announce this view. 

 Mr. Binney also, when he accompanied me several years ago to the 

 Craigs, seemed disposed to question the Triassic age of the strata there 

 exposed ; and on this occasion, when we visited the quarry at Green 

 Mill in the parish of Caerlaverock, where beds similar to those of the 

 Craigs quarry, and occupying the same position, are worked, he was 

 the first to detect footprints. These impressions he stated were 

 difi'erent from any found by him in the Trias of Cheshire. 



Resting the conclusions therefore on the mineral evidence, it would 

 appear that the sandstones which have hitherto generally been re- 

 garded as of Triassic age must be referred to the Permxian ; and 

 probably the only portion of Triassic sandstone which occurs in the 

 South of Scotland is that extending from Cumberland into the south- 

 east of Dumfriesshire, the association of the strata of which is entirely 

 different from that in the several areas described. 



The existence of animal life, in the form of Reptiles, during the 

 period of the deposition of these Permian beds must have been 

 abundant, since we meet with numerous impressions caused by Che- 

 lonians. Lizards, and Batrachians, which walked over the shores of 

 the Permian Sea when its sandstones were sandy beaches with mud- 

 patches scattered over them. 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. vii. p. 163. 



