16 
SILURIA. 
[Chap. I. 
younger palaeozoic groups, termed Devonian, Carboniferous, and Permian. 
The Devonian is simply an intermediate zone between the great Silurian 
and Carboniferous systems, while to the last are closely linked on the 
Permian deposits. The Devonian rocks were in previous years known 
only as the Old Red Sandstone, a name which has become classical 
through the writings of Hugh Miller. These were termed Devonian, 
because the strata of that age in Devonshire, though lithologically unlike 
the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland, Hereford, and the South-Welsh 
counties, contain a much more copious fossil fauna, and were shown to 
occupy the same intermediate position as the Old Red Sandstone, between 
the Silurian and Carboniferous rocks. At that time, however, none of the 
fossil fishes of the Scottish or English Old Red had been found in the 
slates, schists, sandstones, or limestones of Devonshire, or of the Rhine ; 
and objections might therefore have been raised to the term ' Devonian ' 
as applied to the Old Red deposits. But the discovery made in Russia* 
of the same species of Scottish ichthyolites being there commingled in the 
same rock with forms of mollusca found in Devonshire f — similar tests 
being afterwards extended to Belgium and the Rhenish Provinces — firmly 
established the truth of the comparison. It was also shown by myself that 
the uppermost Silurian rocks of Norway (Christiania) are surmounted by 
copious masses of Old Red Sandstone J. 
The Carboniferous rocks, so largely and fully developed in the British 
Isles, have been well investigated by many writers, particularly by Pro- 
fessor Phillips ; and they have been found to extend, like the Silurian and 
Devonian, over immense regions in all quarters of the globe. 
The great primeval or Palaeozoic series is now known to terminate 
upwards, in Europe, with certain deposits for which, in the year 1841, 
I suggested the name of ' Permian.' In the earlier days of geological 
science in England, this group was classed with the New Red Sandstone, 
of which it was supposed to form the base ; but extended researches have 
shown, from the character of its imbedded remains, that it is naturally- 
united with the Carboniferous deposit below it, and is entirely distinct 
from the Trias, or New Red Sandstone, which, overlying it, forms the 
base of all the Secondary rocks. The chief calcareous member of this 
Permian group was termed in Germany the ' Zechstein,' in England the 
* Magnesian Limestone;' but as magnesian limestones have been produced 
at many different periods, and as the German ' Zechstein ' is a part only 
of a group, the other members of which are known as 4 Kupfer-Schiefer' 
(copper-slate), ' Roth-todt-liegendes ' (the ' Lower New Red ' of English 
geologists), &c, it was manifest that a single name for the whole was 
* See Russia in Europe and the Ural Moun- logist,' vol. v. p. 458, &c.). 
tains, vol. i. p. 64. T Russia in Europe and the Ural Mountains, 
t Even in the rocks of South Devon Prof. Phil- vol. i. p. 13; and Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. i. 
lips and Mr. Pengelly have found afew fish-scales p. 469, and vol. viii. p. 182. 
such as abound in the Old Red Sandstone (' Geo- 
