1871.] EAMSAT LQ-WEE LIAS. 193 



vations, more or less perfect, confirm this, from the south-western 

 parts of England, northward to the shores of the Tees, all on the 

 direct outcrop between the common Lower Lias and the recognized 

 New Eed Marl. Two outliers of Rhaetic beds, formerly called Lower 

 Lias, also appear at Bagots Park and near JSTewborough, north-west 

 of Burton-on-Trent ; and I do not doubt that the same strata would 

 be found at the base of the outlier of Lias near Whitchurch, in 

 Shropshire, if the rocks of that country were not so much obscured 

 by glacial drift. In Cumberland, round Carlisle, at the mouth of the 

 Yale of Eden, a great tract of Permian strata is directly overlain by 

 Keuper Marls, which are succeeded by Lower Lias, though as yet no 

 Rhsetic beds have been noted iu that area, which is also deeply 

 covered by glacial debris and other superficial deposits. In fact, 

 wherever the New Red Marl goes, the Lias follows in apparent con- 

 formity ; and wherever the examiuation has been complete, the 

 Ehaetic beds are found between them, while the Bunter beds, which, 

 were the series complete, would lie beneath the Marl, are often 

 absent, iu which case the Marl rests on Permian or any other strata 

 of older date. The Liassic and Ehsetic beds, therefore, appear to act 

 ia conformity with the New Eed Marl, and in connexion with it ; 

 while the last seems to have in England less immediate stratigraph- 

 ical relation to the New Eed Sandstone — a fact possibly connected 

 with the absence of the Muschelkalk in Britain. 



Having reached this point of the argument, it is time to consider 

 the palseontological part of the question, in relation to the probable 

 physical geography of the time. 



In Stoppani's descriptions of the Upper -Trias fossils of Esiao * he 

 gives descriptions and figures of a magnificent suite of fossils from 

 beds which, according to his classification, ought to be the general 

 equivalents of our New Eed Marl. Only one of these species, 

 Anatina prcecursor, passes into his infra-Lias or Avicula-contorta 

 zone. The Lower St.-Cassian and Hallstatt beds, on the oppo- 

 site sides of the Tyrolese Alps, are believed by Hauer and Suess 

 to be the general equivalents of the Keuper strata of Germany, 

 France, and England, and, of course, of the beds of Esino. They 

 number from 600 to 800 species of fossils. 



In Stoppani's work on the infra-Lias and Avicula-contorta zone f 

 of Lombardy, descriptions and figures of about 75 genera and 

 200 species are given, consisting principally of MoUusca, with a 

 few Echinodermata, Sponges, (fee. The fossils are very nearly quite 

 distinct from those of the upper half of his infra-Lias beds, and of our 

 English Lower Lias generally. The thickness of the strata de- 

 scribed, the variety and number of the Mollusca and other forms, 

 together with the luxuriant development and proportions of the 

 individual shells, point to the existence in that area, in the south 

 and east of Europe, and elsewhere of a broad open ocean, fitted for 

 the habitation of a large and flourishing fauna — very different in 

 these respects from the development of the British Ehsetic beds, 

 whether we regard their thickness or the fossils they contain. 

 * Milan, 1858-60. t Milan, 1860-65. 



