MANUAL OF NATUKAL HISTORY. 559 



The lowest division consists of variegated sand- 

 stone, distinguished by greenish stripes and spots, 

 and containing clay galls. The middle division, or 

 maschelJcalk, occurs under several varieties of lime- 

 stones, which alternate with marls and clays, some- 

 times containing gypsum and rock salt. In the 

 upper division, or Keuper, marls and clays, asso- 

 ciated with gypsum and rock salt, and sometimes 

 an impure coal occur. 



Deposits of this system are extensively developed 

 in France, Germany, Italy, European Russia, North 

 America ; and it traverses England from south-west 

 to north-east. The organic remains of the New 

 Red-Sandstone are tolerably numerous. A gigantic 

 extinct species of Kangaroo has been found in fis- 

 sures and caves of limestone of this epoch in New 

 Holland, associated with the bones of the Wombat, 

 and another marsupial mammal allied to Didelphis. 



In the New Red-Sandstone of Massachusets fossil 

 foot-prints of unknown animals, presumed to have 

 been birds, have been observed. These imprints 

 are of gigantic dimensions, being fifteen inches long 

 and ten inches broad, and from four to five feet 

 apart. 



Among Reptilian remains, five species of Laby- 

 rinthodon, a kind of gigantic Batrachian, of littoral 

 habits, with the jaws furnished with teeth, have been 

 discovered in the lower stage of the New Red-Sand- 

 stone of England ; it is supposed to have resembled 

 a monstrous toad, and to have left the remarkable 

 foot-prints on the muddy shores, resembling hands, 



