46 GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS. 
in it of Labyrinthodon, Nothosaurus, and other saurians. Soon 
after it was discovered that the bunter sandstone contained remains 
of saurians near Jena, and also at Bernburg. Even in Bohemia, 
where the existence of this formation is now proved, it includes re- 
mains of saurians, since it is almost certain that the animal de- 
scribed by Fitzinger as the Paleosaurus Sternbergeri, belongs to the 
bunter sandstone of this land. 
D’ Aubuisson’s view, that in England the place of the muschelkalk 
was occupied by the Portland stone, cornbrash and forest marble, 
could not be maintained after the position and petrifactions of these 
deposits were more accurately examined. But some English geolo- 
gists* still consider the trias formation with the lias as the older, 
the oolite and Wealden as the middle, and the chalk as the upper 
group of the secondary formations. The representative of the trias 
in England is the New Red Sandstone, the higher part of which is 
named the ‘ Upper New Red Sandstone.’ This sandstone lies on 
the magnesian limestone (zechstem) belonging to the so-called pale- 
ozoic rocks, and consists of a series of yellowish or red beds of an 
arenaceous nature, alternating with red, green or blue marls, which 
are poor in petrifactions, but often contain rock-salt m abundance 
and crystalline gypsum, in which respect they resemble the trias 
formations of the continent of Europe. The muschelkalk is not found - 
in England; and this absence of the intermediate group, with the 
close resemblance of the existing rocks to each other, and the almost 
entire want of petrifactions, makes it difficult to distmguish the 
upper from the lower sandstone. The sandstones and conglomerates 
of central England are usually considered as the bunter sandstone ; 
to this must be added a portion of the formations designated as the 
‘Red Marl,’ ‘New Red Sandstone,’ and ‘ Variegated Sandstone ; 
but the saliferous marls of Cheshire, as well as the greater part of the 
rocks comprised under the ‘Red Marl’ and ‘ Variegated Marls,’ are 
considered as equivalents of the Keuper. The absence of any calea- 
reous beds between the sandstone deposits of the trias and those of 
the zechstein, renders these also scarcely distinguishable; and the 
term ‘New Red Sandstone’ often comprehends the Keuper, the 
Bunter sandstone, and the sandstones of the Zechstein, the latter be- 
longing to an older period of the earth, and containing no remains of 
Labyrinthodon, which occur in the other sandstones. But as long as 
it is not ascertained whether any and what species of Labyrinthodon 
are peculiar to each of these deposits, so long will even these fossil 
vertebrata furnish no sufficient means of separating the keuper of 
England from the bunter sandstone. In the trias formations of 
England, Labyrinthodon chiefly occurs}; the other trias saurians 
of Germany and France are as little known there, as on the European 
continent the Cladyodont from the new red sandstone of Warwick 
and Leamington, and the Bhynchosaurus §, whose remains have been 
* Ansted, Geology, vol. i. p. 288. 
t+ Owen, Geol. Trans. 2nd ser. vol. vi. pp. 503. 515. 
t Owen, Second Rep. on Brit. Foss. Rept. p. 155. 
§ Owen, Trans. Cambridge Philos. Soc. vol. vii. p. 355. 
