200 
GERMAN EQUIVALENTS OF THE PERMIAN SYSTEM. 
which, particularly near Friedland and Rupersdorf on the Bohemian frontier, 
a black, bituminous limestone occurs. This calcareous rock, thus interlaced 
with red deposits which represent the Rohte-todte-liegende, and immediately over- 
lying the coal-measures, contains Zechstein fishes, associated with plants closely 
resembling those of our Permian types. Of the fishes, the Palcsoniscus Wratisla- 
viensis (Ag.) and the P. lepidurus (Ag.) are the most abundant ; and among the 
most common of the plants we may cite a Neuropteris (Odontopteris ) , which is 
never found in the underlying coal-measures, but is very characteristic of the 
Permian deposits of Russia. This identification is established on the au- 
thority of that excellent fossil botanist, Professor Goppert, who subscribed to our 
opinion, that the other plants of the limestone and flagstone of this red group, are 
distinct in species from those of the carboniferous strata. Now, as the fishes 
also, are referred to the same type as the Ichthyolites found in the Zechstein of 
Western Germany and in the parallel rocks of Russia, there can be no doubt, that 
these Silesian beds of red sandstone, shale, marl, and conglomerate, with an in- 
cluded limestone, not only represent the Permian system, but are singularly in- 
teresting, in indicating a closer approach to the Russian form of the deposit than 
their representatives in the west of Europe. We, therefore, confidently revert to 
the view which we expressed in proposing the term Permian, and we unhesitatingly 
include the Rohte-todte-liegende in this natural group 1 . 
Having thus indicated the strata which are the lower members of the Permian 
series in Germany, can we pursue the parallel upwards, and show, that, as in 
Russia, some of the beds overlying the Zechstein are also to be grouped with that 
rock ? This question is one of considerable importance ; for, as by its organic 
contents the Zechstein is now admitted to he of palaeozoic age, we are called 
upon to decide, whether its uppermost natural limit was completed when the 
last beds of limestone were accumulated. What then are the facts in Germany 
to support this view ? The answer is, that the Bunter Sandstein or next over- 
lying rock, forms there as conformable a roof to the Zechstein, as the latter does 
to the Rohte-todte-liegende. That limestone, therefore, with the Kupfer-schiefer 
and its dependences, is thus simply the fossil-bearing centre of a great deposit of 
red conglomerates, shales, and sandstone. Wherever, indeed, the Zechstein occurs 
n a tract in which its relations to the overlying sandstone can be traced, the two 
1 See Letter of Mr. Murchison to Dr. Fischer von Waldheim, Sept. 1841, Moscow. Leonhard and 
Bronn’s Jahrbuch for 1842, part 1. p. 91 ; and Phil. Mag. vol. six. p. 418. 
