TRIAS— COAL. 65 



they are developed in Germany. The German portion, 

 judging by its influxes, must be regarded as a formation 

 of strands and bays; its more highly integrated equiva- 

 lent in the Alps as a huge oceanic deposit. The Muschel- 

 kalk (which is missing in England), with its layers of 

 rock salt and rich remains of oceanic organisms, is like- 

 wise a marine formaUon. Of the origin of the stratified 

 variegated sandstone, so-called from its varied colouring, 

 with its clays, marls, and frequent vast enclosures of 

 gypsum, we obtain some idea from our present formations 

 of sandy shores and dunes. Like these, the deposition of 

 the variegated sandstone afforded but scanty opportuni- 

 ties of enclosing animal and vegetal remains, but very 

 notable footprints have been preserved, such as might 

 now be formed and preserved, if the marks imprinted 

 on the damp sand were filled up with fine clayey parti- 

 cles torn by a storm from some adjacent shore, and sub- 

 divided in the sea. 



As the diversified appearance of the superimposed 

 planes of antediluvian plants and animals of course de- 

 pends essentially on the nature of their former abodes, 

 and as the nature of the individual districts of each 

 plane must then, as now, have influenced the character 

 of the organisms by which it was inhabited, we will 

 indicate the causes which thus affect life in its form and 

 manifold variety. In order to complete our view of the 

 origin of the Earth's crust, and the dependence of the 

 organic on the configuration of the inorganic world, we 

 will leave a geologist, Credner, to describe the relations 

 of the dyassic and carboniferous formations: " In regions 

 where the carboniferous (coal) formation is typically de- 

 veloped, it consists of a series of stratifications, the lower 



