Chap. XIII.] PEEMIAN EOCKS IN ENGLAND. 333 
Reverting to England, I may say that I cannot readily abandon the opinion 
I formed after many years of personal researches, that the trappean agglome- 
rates of the south of Devonshire may be of Permian age. I admit that Mr. Pen- 
gelly has endeavoured to show, and with much ability, that these red rocks, 
extending from the west of Torquay to Dawlish, form the natural base of the 
Trias, which underlies the Lias to the east of the River Exe ; but I must be 
permitted to doubt whether, considering the great intervening estuary of the 
River Exe, there may not be some unconformity — some overlap of the younger 
and Infra-Liassic strata, as respects these lower breccias. I can only say that I 
entirely agree with Conybeare and Buckland, who, after a journey in Germany 
in 1816, distinctly identified the Heavitree Conglomerate near Exeter with the 
Roth-liegende of the Germans f. Long before that, indeed, Dr. Berger had ad- 
mirably described these rocks ; and any one who may read his description % will 
see how very different they are from any band of the Trias either in Germany 
or Britain. Again, in 1839, Sir H. De la Beche § described these rocks as of 
igneous origin and interpolated among the red sandstones and conglomerates. 
Now, as we are unacquainted with signs of volcanic activity in the Trias, and 
have seen that it abounded in the beginning of the Permian era, I must, until 
more evidence shall have been brought forward, remain in the persuasion that 
these lower red rocks of Devonshire may represent the Roth-liegende of Ger- 
many and the ' Lower New Red Sandstone ' of the older English geologists. 
In the endeavour to trace the Permian rocks to the south of the Manchester 
tract, we lose the clear evidence of the fossiliferous limestone centre, though cal- 
careous conglomerates and breccias do occur above the Lower Red Sandstone and 
may probably be viewed as representing the Magnesian Limestone of the northern 
counties. Such, at least, was my opinion when I described these rocks many 
years ago, particularly as exhibited in Shropshire, Staffordshire, and Worcester- 
shire. In those tracts the Lower Red (erroneously called the 1 Lower New Red' 
before the term ' Permian ' was proposed) is an arenaceous formation of consider- 
able dimensions, which, as I then showed, had been very successfully bored 
through in search of coal (Sil. Syst. p. 58). To the south of the Staffordshire 
Coal-field, such Permian strata are seen to rest on the Upper Carboniferous beds. 
In that district calcareous matter so abounds in the red Permian rocks as to 
constitute zones of earthy subconcretionary limestone, which we pointed out 
as being undistinguishable from cornstones of the Old Red Sandstone of the 
adjacent county ||. Thus, lying between two red deposits of similar structure, the 
position of the coal of Staffordshire and Shropshire realizes the aphorism of 
Humboldt, a que le terrain houiller n'est qu'un accident dans le grand terrain du 
gres rouge." 
The irregularity of succession between the Coal and these Permian rocks has 
been defined by Mr. J. Beete Jukes as occurring around the South Staffordshire 
Coal-field ; and on the left bank of the Severn, between Enville and the Forest 
of Wyre, the whole of the Permian series is represented by Professor Ramsay ^[ 
as shown in the following diagram (p. 334), in which we see the Coal-strata, a, 
lying at an angle beneath the unconformable red sandstone, b, with calcareous 
courses and concretions, and how both deposits have been downcast by a great 
fault, *. We further observe the order of the Permian rocks in this tract to 
consist of, b, sandstone, marl, calcareous courses, and conglomerates beneath, 
t Geology of England and Wales, p. 313. || Silurian System, p. 55. Also Mr. J. Beete 
I Trans. Geol. Soc. vol. i. p. 99. Jukes, in Eeeords of the School of Mines, vol. ii. 
§ Report on the Geology of Devon and Corn- pp. 160 &c. 
wall, pp. 199 et seq. *f Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xi. p. 188. 
