Murchison on the Permian System. 267 



In common with many other geologists, Mr. Murchison was 

 formerly of opinion* that the above-mentioned three systems con- 

 stituted the whole Palaeozoic series, but the examination of Russia 

 and Germany has led him to include also therein the next group 

 in ascending order, or that to which he had assigned! the name of 

 Permian. 



When two or more conterminous formations are shown to have 

 a community of fossils, it has recently been deemed essential to 

 group them under one name ; and following the practice of assign- 

 ing to any such newly classed group a geographical name derived 

 from the region where the strata are best developed, the term 

 " Permian" was employed. This system was first proposed to em- 

 brace the deposits known in Germany as the Rothe-todte-liegende, 

 Zechstein, Kupferschiefer, &c, and in England as Lower New Red 

 Sandstone, Magnesian limestone, &c. 



In communicating some of the results of a journey in Poland and 

 Germany during last summer, Mr. Murchison, one of the authors 

 of the present memoirs, states that his object is to show that his first 

 view concerning the inferior limit of this system is correct — to ex- 

 tend its upper limits, and from the distribution and character of its 

 organic remains to demonstrate that it is of palaeozoic age. 



Near Zwickau in Saxony, and Waldenburg in Upper Silesia, pro- 

 ductive coal-fields (in the latter country recumbent on carboniferous 

 limestome) are unconformably surmounted by red conglomerate, 

 sandstone and shale (the rothe-todte-liengende), which in those 

 countries, as in Thuringia and Hesse Cassel, pass conformably up- 

 wards into Zechstein or its equivalents. The same relation of a 

 lower sandstone to the Magnesian limestone are, indeed, well known 

 in England, and have been pointed out in detail by Professor Sedg- 

 wick. Seeing that these two deposits are so intimately associated, 

 few, if any, geologists would wish to disunite them ; but the ques- 

 tion arises, what is the uppermost limit of this group. In Russia, 



* See " Silurian System," p. 46. et seq. In England Professor Phillips has, 

 however, some time maintained that the fossils of the magnesian limestone ou^ht 

 to be grouped with the inferior strata. 



f See " Letter to M. Fischer Von Waldheim, Sept. 1841 ;" Leonhard's " Jahr 

 Buch," part i. p. 91, 1812; " Phil. Magazine,'-' vol. xix. p. 418. 



