1857.] HULL TRIAS AND PERMIAN. 223 



In composition, the sandstone strongly resembles the conglomerate- 

 beds of the Bunter in Lancashire and Cheshire, the difference being 

 principally in the less abundance of quartz- pebbles in the case of the 

 Heidelberg beds. The colour is bright red, and occasional partings 

 of marl occur in the planes of bedding. Rounded quartz-pebbles, 

 similar to those of the English quartzose conglomerates, occur spa- 

 ringly ; and veins of brown iron-ore have been found, — a remark- 

 able specimen being in Dr. von Leonhard's collection. 



Several quarries have been opened at Heidelberg, Neckar-steiner, 

 and Nussloch ; and the stone has been used with good architectural 

 effect in the construction of Heidelberg Castle, and other public 

 buildings of the country *. The composition of the whole formation 

 is almost uniform throughout ; and in this neighbourhood there is 

 no part thereof which can be referred to the " Lower Bunter Sand- 

 stein," or "Bunter Schiefer," as the beds immediately under the 

 Muschelkalk are similar in all respects to those which rest upon the 

 Zechstein and Roth-todt-liegendes. 



The Bunter is finely exhibited along the gorge of the Neckar, and 

 in quarries in the neighbourhood of Heidelberg and Nussloch, near 

 its junction with the Muschelkalk. Throughout its depth the com- 

 position is uniform, affording no changes in mineral structure upon 

 which to found sub-formations. 



In England, on the other hand, in Salop, Cheshire, and Lan- 

 cashire, where this formation is most fully developed, we find three 

 sub-formations preserving well-defined boundary-lines, and, from 

 their differences of mineral character, producing landscape-features 

 characteristic of each sub-formation. For these I proposed the 

 names Upper Variegated Sandstone, Conglomerate-beds, and Lower 

 Variegated Sandstone ; the middle member of the series separating the 

 other two, which resemble each other strongly in mineral character f. 



Now, it is to this middle sub-formation, or the " Conglomerate- 

 beds " as they occur in Western England, that the Bunter of the 

 Odenwald bears the most resemblance : hand-specimens from the 

 two localities could scarcely be referred with certainty to their ori- 

 ginal beds ; the only difference between them being the greater 

 abundance of quartzose pebbles in the English sandstone. 



Guided, then, by mineral resemblance, we might infer that the 

 Bunter Sandstein of England is more complete than in this part of 

 Germany ; and that, of the three stages representing three epochs in 

 the history of that formation in the one country, only the second of 

 these was represented in the other. 



Considering, however, that the sandstone of the Odenwald attains 

 a thickness which the three subdivisions in England never exceed, 

 and inasmuch as the strata of both countries were certainly discon- 

 nected at the period of their deposition, the evidence is not sufficient 

 to warrant such an hypothesis ; and I feel inclined to consider the 

 formation in both countries as strictly contemporaneous. 



* The author cannot assent to the wish expressed by a celebrated poet, — that 

 the sandstone of this fine old ruin were" grey, and not red." — See ' Hyperion.' 

 f For descriptions of these sub-formations, see Rep. Brit. Assoc. 1854. 



