xii CONTENTS. 



Marine Reptile of the Galapagos Islands — Sudden destruction and burial of fos- 

 sil animals in Lias — Fluvio-marine beds in Gloucestershire, and insect limestone 

 — Fossil plants — Origin of the Oolite and Lias, and of alternating calcareous and 

 argillaceous formations, ------ page 415 



Chapter XXII. — Trias or New Red Sandstone Group. 



Distinction between New and Old Red Sandstone — Between Upper and Lower New 

 Red — The Trias and its three divisions — Most largely developed in Germany — 

 Recognition of a Marine equivalent of the Upper' Trias in the Austrian Alps — 

 True position of the St. Cassian and Hallstadt Beds — 800 new species of triassic 

 Mollusca and Radiata — Links thus supplied for connecting the Palseozoic and 

 Neozoic faunas — Keuper and its fossils — Muschelkalk and fossils — Fossil plants 

 of the Bunter — Triassic group in England — Bone-bed of Axmouth and Aust — 

 Red Sandstone of Warwickshire and Cheshire — Footsteps of Cheirotherium in 

 England and Germany — Osteology of the Labyrinthodon — Whether this Batra- 

 chian was identical with Cheirotherium — Dolomitic Conglomerate of Bristol — 

 Origin of Red Sandstone and Rock-salt — Hypothesis of saline volcanic exhala- 

 tions — Theory of the precipitation of salt from inland lakes or lagoons — Saltness 

 of the Red Sea — Triassic coal-field of Eastern Virginia, near Richmond — New 

 Red Sandstone in the United States — Fossil footprints of birds and reptiles in the 

 valley of the Connecticut — Antiquity of the Red Sandstone containing them — 

 Triassic mammifer of North Carolina, - - ... - 431 



Chapter XXIII. — Permian or Magnesian Limestone Group. 



Fossils of Magnesian Limestone and Lower' New Red distinct from the Triassic — 

 Term " Permian " — English and German equivalents — Marine shells and corals 

 of English Magnesian Limestone — Palseoniscus and other fish of the marl-slate — 

 Zechstein and Rothliegendes of Thuringia — Permian Flora — Its generic affinity 

 to the Carboniferous — Psaronites or tree-ferns, - 458 



Chapter XXIV. — The Goal, or Carboniferous Group. 



Carboniferous strata in the southwest of England — Superposition of Coal-measures 

 to Mountain Limestone — Departure from this type in North of England and 

 Scotland — Carboniferous series in Ireland— Section in South Wales — Under-clays 

 with Stigmaria — Carboniferous Flora — Ferns, Lepidodendra, Equisetacese, Cala- 

 mites, Asterophyllites, Sigillariae, Stigmarise — Coniferse — Sternbergia — Trigono- 

 carpon— Grade of Coniferse in the Vegetable Kingdom— Absence of Angiosperms 

 — Coal, how formed — Erect fossil trees — Parkfield Colliery — St. Etienne Coal- 

 field — Oblique trees or snags — Fossil forests in Nova Scotia — Rain-prints — Purity 

 of the Coal explained — Time required for the accumulation of the Coal-measures 

 — Brackish-water and marine strata — Crustaceans of the Coal — Origin of Clay 

 iron-stone, --------- 4fi5 



Chapter XXV. — Carboniferous Group, continued. 



Coal-fields of the United States— Section of the country between the Atlantic and 

 Mississippi — Position of land in the carboniferous period eastward of the Alle 

 ghanies — Mechanically formed rocks thinning out westward, and limestones 

 thickening — Uniting of many coal-seams into one thick bed — Horizontal coal 

 at Brownsville, Pennsylvania — Vast extent and continuity of single seams of 

 coal — Ancient river-channel in Forest of Dean coal-field — Climate of car- 

 boniferous period — Insects in coal — Rarity of air-breathing animals — Great 

 number of fossil fish— First discovery of the skeletons of fossil reptiles — Foot- 



