PALEOZOIC TIME — CARBONIC. 697 



2. Permian Period. 



On tlie map of England (Fig. 1126) a border of Permian is represented 

 along the east side of the ISTewcastle Carboniferous area, and also adjoining 

 other coal areas excepting that of South Wales. (The areas are marked with 

 dots on a white ground, and numbered 5.) A small area occurs in Ireland, 

 about the Lough of Belfast. The rocks are red sandstone and marlytes, 

 aloDg with Magnesian limestone. Before their relations were correctly made 

 out, they were included, along with part of the Triassic, under the name 

 "New Red Sandstone." 



In Durham, northeastern England, there is (1) a Lower Eed sandstone, 

 200 feet thick ; then (2) a, 60 feet of marl-slate ; b, two strata of Magnesian 

 limestone, the lower 500, and the upper 100 feet thick, separated by 200 feet 

 of gypseous marlyte, and overlaid by 100 feet of the same. The Magnesian 

 and other limestones disappear to the south, near ISTottingham. In north- 

 western England, the Lower Permian includes 3000 feet of marlytes and 

 sandstones ; the Middle, onl}^ 10 to 30 feet of Magnesian limestone ; the 

 Upper, 600 feet, similar to the Lower. There are detached Permian areas in 

 Dumfriesshire, Ayrshire, etc., in Scotland. 



In European Eussia, Permian strata cover a region more than twice as 

 large as all France; it includes the greater part of the governments of Perm, 

 Orenburg, Kazan, Nizhni Novgorod, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Viatka, and 

 Vologda. The beds are sandstones, shales, marlytes, and dolomitic lime- 

 stone, and contain an occasional thin seam of coal. The deposits are flanked 

 and underlaid on nearly all sides by different members of the Carboniferous 

 formation containing comparatively little coal. 



In central Germany small areas occur, from southern Saxony along the 

 Erzgebirge, over the adjoining small German states, west to Hesse Cassel, 

 and north to the Harz Mountains and Hanover. Within this area, Mans- 

 feld is one noted locality, situated in Prussian Saxony, not far from Eisleben ; 

 another is on the southwest borders of the Thuringian forest (Thiiringer- 

 wald) in Saxe-Gotha, a line which is continued to the northwest, by Eise- 

 nach, toward Miinden in southern Germany. In Thuringia and Saxony, the 

 subdivisions of the rocks, beginning below, are (1) the BotJiUegende, or Red 

 beds, consisting of red sandstone, and barren of copper ores ; near the town 

 of Eisenach, about 4000 feet thick ; (2) The Zechsteln formation, or Mag- 

 nesian limestone, consisting of (a) the Loiver Zechstein, a gray, earthy lime- 

 stone, overlying the Kupferschiefer, or copper-bearing shales, and the still 

 lower Weissliegende or Grauliegende, or white or gray beds ; (6) the 3Iid- 

 dle Zechstein, Magnesian limestone, called the Rauclnoacke and Rauhkalk ; 

 (c) the Upper Zechstein, or the Plattendolomit, and including the impure fetid 

 limestone called Stinkstein. 



The lower part of the Lower Permian of England includes, in some places, 

 beds of coarse conglomerate, containing angular masses of rock of great size. 



