Charles Schuchert — Historical Geology, 1818-1918. 67 



Unearthing of the Paleozoic in North America. 



Permian of the United Slates. — In Europe, previous to 

 1841, the formations now classed as Permian were 

 included in the New Red Sandstone, and with the Car- 

 boniferous were referred to the Secondary. In that 

 year Murchison proposed the period term Permian. In 

 1845 came the classic Geology of Russia in Europe and 

 the Ural Mountains, by Murchison, Keyserling, and De 

 Yerneuil. In this great work the authors separated out 

 of the New Red the Magnesian Limestone of Great Brit- 

 ain and the Rothliegende marls, Kupferschiefer, and 

 Zechstein of Germany, and with other formations of the 

 Urals in Russia, referred them to the Permian system. 

 This step, one of the most discerning in historical geol- 

 ogy, was all the more important because they closed the 

 Paleozoic era with the Permian, beginning the Second- 

 ary, or Mesozoic, with the New Red Sandstone or the 

 Triassic period. There is a good review of this work bv 

 D. D. Owen (1807-1860) in the Journal for 1847 (3, 153). 



Owen, though accepting the Permian system, is not 

 satisfied with its reference to the Paleozoic, and he sets 

 the matter forth in the Journal (3, 365, 1847). He 

 doubts "the propriety of a classification which throws 

 the Permian and Carboniferous systems into the Paleo- 

 zoic period. " This is mainly because there is no "evi- 

 dence of disturbance or unconformability'' between the 

 Permian and Triassic systems. Rather "there is so 

 complete a blending of adjacent strata' ' that it is only 

 in Russia that the Permian has been distinguished from 

 the Triassic. This view of Owen's was not only correct 

 for Russia but even more so for the Alps and for India, 

 and it has taken a great deal of work and discussion to 

 fix upon the disconformable contact that distinguishes 

 the Paleozoic from the Mesozoic in these areas. In 

 other words, there was here at this time no mountain 

 making. Then Owen goes on to state that because the 

 Permian of Europe has reptiles, he sees in them decisive 

 Mesozoic evidence. "These are certainly strong argu- 

 ments in favor of placing, not only the Permian, but also 

 the Carboniferous group in the Mesozoic period, and ter- 

 mini tins: the Paleozoic division with the commencement 

 of the coal measures." To this harking backward the 



