426 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Apr. 4, 



Zechstein at Kamsdorf near Saalfeld, where they occupy two beds, 

 described by Richter *. 



The natural capping of the great masses of the Zechstein and 

 Dolomite with its gypsum consists of the regularly bedded brown- 

 coloured impure fetid limestone, called Rauch-kalk, in which the 

 characteristic fossils of the formation cease. 



According to the classification proposed by one of us, there are, 

 howeyer, yet some other overlying beds (fig. 4, c^) which form the 

 natural summit of the Permian rocks, but which have hitherto been 

 classed by German geologists with the Banter-Sandstein or base of 

 the Trias. In numerous sections they are indeed seen to lie in the 

 same ridge with the Zechstein and to constitute its cap. They are 

 the lowest part only of the Bunter-Mergel of Credner (also Sand- 

 schiefer or Sandige Mergel-Schiefer of that author), and are finely 

 laminated and sandy marlstone, occasionally exhibiting a mineral 

 transition through their calcareous contents into the underlying 

 Zechstein on which they repose. 



We have for som.e years thought that the Bunter-Sandstein of 

 Central Germany ought fairly to be deprived of this inferior member, 

 because it has never offered any Triassic fossil, whilst it has been 

 found to contain a Calamite more allied to the palaeozoic than to the 

 mesozoic deposits, and also because it is physically and mineralogically 

 connected with the Zechstein. Bat these reasons could not alone 

 have led to our including this band (fig. 4, c") as the upper limit of 

 the Permian, had not our survey of Russia taught us, that over 

 very extensive 7'effions, the fauna and flora — i. e. reptiles and land 

 plants of true Permian characters, and which are characteristic 

 of the Zechstein zone of Germany — ascend in Perm, Orenburg, 

 Kazan, ^c, far above that zone into red sandstones, marls, and 

 conglomerates. In that vast country, where there are no inversions 

 of the strata, and where the beds are nearly horizontal, there can be 

 no mistake. Hence, until some fossil evidence shall invalidate our 

 inference founded on such good proofs, physical and zoological, we 

 shall continue to class the unfossiliferous bottom rocks of the hitherto 

 so-called Bunter-Sandstein of Germany with the Permian group. In 

 fact, our English sections of the true Permian series where it is best 

 developed, as in Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire, sanction this clas- 

 sification. In his excellent memoir on the Magnesian Limestone, 

 Prof. Sedgwick has shown, not only how the Lower Red Sandstone 

 is surmounted by the equivalents of the Kupfer-schiefer and Zech- 

 stein, but also how the last-mentioned is capped by red and green 

 marls, which he associated with the subjacent calcareous masses f . 



The fossils of the Zechstein have been so long studied by German 

 naturalists, that if such were our object, we should have to refer to a 

 variety of works for a complete acquaintance with them. Recently 

 Professor Geinitz described many new species, and subsequently 

 M. V. Schauroth % has added other forms new to science, and has con- 



* Einladungs-Programrn der Realschule, &c. (p. 21), 1853, Saalfeld. 



t Trans. Geol. Soc. Lond. 2nd ser. vol. iii. p. 37. 



X Zeitschrift, Deutsch. Geolog. Gesell., Band vi. p. 539. 



