FOREIGN 447 



indicate extensive changes in the physical geography of the lands 

 around the Pacific. In the lower Trias (Scythic series) the connec- 

 tion of our Pacific shore was with the Indian and Arctic regions ; in 

 the middle or Dinaric series the connection with the Arctic region is 

 still close, but migration from the Mediterranean region had begun, 

 while in the Tirolic series the relation is most intimate with the 

 Indian and Mediterranean regions of the Old World. Hardly 

 any of the uppermost, or Bajuvaric, series is found on the west 

 coast of North America. 



Foreign. — In Central America (Honduras) has been found 

 another area of estuarine Trias like that of our Atlantic States. 

 All South America east of the Andes was above the sea, for ma- 

 rine Trias is known only on the west side of the Cordilleras. 



In Europe the Trias is displayed in two very different facies, 

 that of central Europe, the production of inland seas and salt 

 lakes, and that of southern Europe, or the Alpine facies, which is 

 marine. In the former region the conditions of the Permian 

 were largely continued, though the situation of the basins was 

 often different from what it had been in the Permian. In Ger- 

 many Triassic rocks cover a very wide area, extending across the 

 southern and central parts of the empire from Poland into France. 

 These rocks are very obviously divided into three series, — a lower 

 division of sandstones and clays, the Bunter Sandstone; a middle 

 calcareous division, the Muschelkalk; and an upper sandy division, 

 the Keuper. The upper and lower divisions are those of the 

 closed basins, with some formation of coal in the Keuper, while 

 the Muschelkalk represents an invasion of the sea from the south, 

 and contains a considerable marine fauna. Triassic deposits ex- 

 tend from the north of Ireland across England, and in southern 

 Sweden is coal-bearing Keuper. In these northern lands the 

 Muschelkalk is absent, and evidently the transgression of the sea 

 did not extend to them. The sandy and clay deposits of Eng- 

 land, France, and Germany were laid down in very shallow 

 waters, while deposits of gypsum and salt indicate the pres- 

 ence of salt lakes. Judging from modern conditions, we may 

 infer that in Permian and Triassic times the climate of north- 



