Chap. XIII.] 
PEEMIAN EOCKS IN SCOTLAND. 
331 
* Peneen ' by M. d'Omalius d'Halloy *. In France (i. e. in the Vosges, and at 
Lodeve in Dauphine) this group has not the distinctive characters, lithological or 
zoological, which it exhibits in Russia, Germany, and Britain, being chiefly a red 
sandstone. But in the Department of L'Aveyron (particularly in the neigh- 
bourhood of Alboy) it has been described as containing some calcareous courses 
representing the Zechstein f. In that tract it is also distinguished, as in other 
regions, by a peculiar flora, containing certain Ferns and Conifers which M. 
Adolphe Brongniart classes with Permian plants. 
In proceeding from the northern to the central and south-western counties of 
England, or, again, to the south-west of Scotland, the Permian group undergoes 
also considerable changes in lithological structure, and with the absence of lime- 
stone is accompanied by a diminution of the number of its characteristic organic 
remains. In Nottinghamshire, and to some extent in Derbyshire, limestone being 
still present, the north-eastern or Durham type is preserved ; but at Manchester 
we no longer distinctly trace the Magnesian Limestone as a separate mass, 
though its place is taken by red marl and shale, with some thin courses of 
limestone subordinate to red sandstone, in which are casts of the common spe- 
cies of Schizodus, Avicula, Turbo, Eissoa, &c, — an unmistakeable Permian 
assemblage. 
Following the formation into the north-western counties from the tracts in 
Lancashire, where he has copiously exhibited its relations to the Coal beneath, 
and to the New Red Sandstone above, Mr. Binney J has estimated the maxi- 
mum thickness of the group in that region at 1160 feet, viz. : Red marls with 
gypsum in the north, and nodules of limestone in the south, 300 feet ; Mag- 
nesian Limestone with fossils, 10 feet ; Red Sandstone, 500 feet. 
Professor Harkness and myself have demonstrated the existence in Westmore- 
land of a range of the Permian rocks of great thickness in the valley of the 
Eden. There the lowest band consists of the Penrith Sandstone, surmounted by 
calcareous breccias, the middle part of impure limestone and shale with Plants 
identical with those which lie in the Marl-slate beneath the Magnesian Lime- 
stone of Durham, and of massive overlying red sandstones with gypsum §. The 
latter are of great thickness in their range to Corby Castle, and also at St. Bees 
Head, where they overlie a very thin course of Magnesian Limestone with fossils. 
To the north of this point no Magnesian Limestone, or Zechstein, has been 
seen ; and when the Permian rocks range into Scotland they become one vast 
mass of sandstones overlying the coal-formation. I suggested, indeed, many 
years ago ||, that the sandstones of Corncockle Muir, near Dumfries, so celebrated 
as exhibiting the footprints of the large Sauroid and other Reptilian animals, 
illustrated by Sir W. Jardine would fall into this category **. The importance 
of thus working out the clear definition of the rocks which really pertain to this 
upper member of the Palaeozoic series will be more apparent at the close of this 
Chapter, when we enumerate all the classes of fossil animals which are known 
to be of Permian age. 
It is also now ascertained that much of the red rock which overlies the coal 
of Ayrshire is of Permian age ft? as well as those red sandstones in the southern 
* Elemens de Geologie, p. 277 : 1831. 
t See the memoir of M. Coquand, Bull. Soc. 
Ge"ol. de France, serie 2. vol. xii. p. 128. 
I Memoirs of the Lit. and Phil. Soc. of Man- 
chester, vol. xii. Session 1854-55. 
§ See Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xviii. p. 205, 
and vol. xx. p. 144. 
|| See Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. vii. p. 163, 
and vol. xii. p. 267. 
% See Sir W. Jardine's 'Ichnology of Annan- 
dale.' Some of the tracks have been referred to 
Batrachian, and others to Chelonian reptiles. 
** Mr. Binney also came to the same conclusion 
some years ago (1856) : Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 
vol. xii. p. 138. 
tt Binney, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xviii. 
p. 439. 
