22G PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Nov. 4, 



filled up in Germany by the highly eventful period of the Muschel- 

 kalk, analogy would lead us to infer the occurrence of physical 

 changes of level sufficient to produce slight local unconformity. 



These Lower Keuper Sandstones are succeeded by a series of red 

 shales and marls with gypsum, which compose the vine-clad banks 

 around the villages of Rotherberg and Rauenberg, in thickness about 

 150 feet. To these succeed the Upper Keuper Sandstein, precisely 

 similar both in mineral aspect and stratigraphical position to the 

 beds which in Central England have for so long monopolized the title 

 of " Keuper Sandstone." They also contain Estheria (Posidonomya) 

 minuta. 



Near Rotherberg, in a lane-section, these beds are finely exhibited. 

 They consist of several alternations of very fine-grained white sand- 

 stone, with white, blue, and bituminous shales, in thickness about 10 

 feet. 



Near Ensheim * r the same beds contain vegetable remains, amongst 

 which the following may be mentioned : Catamites arenarius, Brongn.; 

 T&niopteris vittata, Brongn. ; Pterophyllum Jcegeri, Brongn. 



The Upper Keuper Sandstein is succeeded by a considerable thick- 

 ness of red, purple, and grey marls and shales, with occasional bands 

 of sandstone, gypsum, and nodules of haematite. These beds cor- 

 respond to the red marls which are superimposed on the " Keuper 

 Sandstone" of the central counties of England, and, while they com- 

 prehend the more considerable mass of the formation, form the upper 

 limit of the Triassic system of both countries. 



Summary. — A Tabular View, condensing the remarks made in this 

 paper, is given at p. 225. I have adopted the division of the 

 Permian group into three members, as already pointed out by 

 Sir R. I. Murchisonf, as this formation, both stratigraphically and 

 mineralogically, appears to assume a tripartite arrangement. 



In England, the lower member, or Roth-todt-liegendes, is confined 

 in its distribution to the Western and Midland Counties, and consists 

 of an areno-argillaceous series, separated into two by an horizon of 

 breccias and conglomerates. It has been shown that each of these 

 subdivisions has its representative in Germany. 



The middle member, represented in both countries by calcareous 

 zones, is in England confined to the North-Eastern Counties ; and is 

 immediately overlaid by the upper member, composed in England 

 and Germany of argillaceous or arenaceous materials. Thus there 

 are three physically distinct members, the lowest of which is itself 

 capable of a ternary division. 



In the Bunter Sandstone we recognize three members in England, 

 and, though we cannot observe any correspondence with them in the 

 sandstone of the Odenwald, yet, recollecting the exact correspondence 

 in the succession of the Permian and Upper Secondary formations in 

 England and Germany, I do not despair of seeing the whole ulti- 

 mately parallelized. 



* Geog. Skizze von Baden, p. 60. 



f See Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xi. p. 426, and Table, p. 448 ; and ' Siluria,' 

 p. 124 et seq. 



