ESTHERIA MINUTA. 



65 



BuNTER Division. 



Thickness, 

 1 900 or 2000 feet. 



' 1. Upper mottled sandstone. Soft, fine-grained, variegated sandstone, without 



pebbles : 700 feet. No fossils. 

 2. Conglomerate-beds. Red pebbly sandstone, with veins of protoxide of iron 

 and oxide of manganese : 700 feet. Obscure impressions of drifted Plants, 



3. Lower mottled 

 fossils. 



sandstone. Soft variegated sandstone : 500 feet. No 



In consequence of tlie south-easterly thinning out of the Triassic group,^ all the 

 divisions of the above table, as they occur in Cheshire, become reduced in thickness ; and 

 some are entirely absent in Warwickshire, as w^ill be seen by the following synoptical 

 comparison, kindly supplied by Mr. E. Hull, 



Keupeb. 



BuNTER. 



Cheshire. 



Red marl, including the Upper 



Keuper sandstone^ 



Lower Keuper sandstone 



Upper mottled sandstone 



above 



Feet. 



3000 

 450 

 700 

 700 

 500 



5350 





West 

 Warwickshire. 



Feet, 



... mo 



East 



Warwickshire. 



Feet. 



.... 450 





. 200 





.... 150 





... 400 ] 







Conglomerate-beds : . . . 



Lower mottled sandstone 





400 /. 



... (Absent.) 





... 10.0 



early) 







(nearly) 



1700 (n 



600 (nearly) 



Habitat of Bstheria minuta. — In England there are no marine organisms (fishes being 

 excluded as doubtful witnesses) accompanying the Estherits of the Keuper ; and the latter 

 might have been at once regarded as of equally freshwater habits with their recent con- 

 geners, were it not that the salt condition of the waters depositing much of the Keuper 

 sandstones and shales is proved by the masses of rock-salt and by the casts of the 

 cubical crystals of salt occurring abundantly in the same beds all over the country of the 



beds of the red marl in Cheshire and the Midland counties. It is desirable that we should know whether 

 the salt-crystals and the Estherice occur in the same or in different layers in this district. Salt-pseudo- 

 rnorphs are described by Messrs. Strickland, Ormerod, and Smyth, in the 'Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.,= 

 vol. ix, pp. 5 and 187. 



For special information respecting the salt-beds at Northwich, &c., see papers by Messrs. Binney and 

 Ormerod, 'Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.,' vol. ii and vol. iv. For remarks on the unconformability of the 

 Keuper to the Bunter, see Mr. Hull's paper in the 'Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.,' vol. xvi, p. 7Q ; and for this 

 and other points belonging to the character and distribution of the Triassic beds see the ' Memoirs Geol. 

 Survey ' (Explanations of the Maps and Sections). 



1 See 'Quart. Journ. Geol.,' vol. xvi, p. 63, &c. 



2 "With regard to the terra ' Upper Keuper Sandstone,' " says Mr. E. Hull, " I think that it can only 

 be retained as applicable to the midland counties. In the northern counties this rock is not confined to one 

 definite zone in the red marl, but is distributed in thin layers throughout nearly the whole subdivision. 

 While, therefore, in Worcestershire, Warwickshire, and Leicestershire (as shown by Strickland, Murchison, 

 Brodie, &c.), we may divide the red marl into three portions, the central of which is the ' Upper Keuper 

 Sandstone,' in Notts, Cheshire, and Salop, no such divisions are possible, as the whole is essentially 

 one group." 



9 



