ch. xxii."! 



NEW RED SANDSTONE. 



431 



CHAPTER XXII 



TRIAS OR NEW RED SANDST02n t E 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 

 Mollusea and Radiata — Links thus supplied for connecting the Palaeozoic and 

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

 of the Bunt er— 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 '^ 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 raamrmfer of North Carolina. 



Between the Lias and the Coal (or Carboniferous group) there is 

 interposed, in the midland and western counties of England, a great 

 series of red loams, shales, and sandstones, to which the name of the 

 " New Red Sandstone formation" was first given, to distinguish it 

 from other shales and sandstones called the " Old Red " (c, fig. 462), 

 often identical in mineral character, which lie immediately beneath 

 the coal (5). 



Fig. 4G2. 



c. Old Eed Sandstone. 



&. Coal. 



a. New Eed Sandstone. 



The name of " Red Marl " has been incorrectly applied to the red 

 clays of this formation, as before explained (p. 13), for they are re- 

 markably free from calcareous matter. The absence, indeed, of car- 

 bonate of lime, as well as the scarcity of organic remains, together 

 with the bright red color of most of the rocks of this group, causes a 

 strono- contrast between it and the Jurassic formations before described. 



Before the distinctness of the fossil remains characterizing the 

 upper and lower part of the English New Red had been clearly recog- 



