276 Paleo-Geological and Geographical Maps of the British Islands. 
under the waters of an inland sea, like the Baltic or Caspian, the fauna being 
exceedingly sparce, as compared with that of the limestones of the Carboniferous 
period,* and indicative of the absence of open oceanic waters. The region of the 
magnesian limestone of the north of England appears to have been disconnected 
with that of the central counties and Shropshire by a barrier ridge, the position of 
which is indicated in Figure 2. To the south and west of this ridge, only Lower 
Permian beds are found,+ and it is probable that these latter beds are, in the main, 
lacustrine. The Permian beds of Scotland are restricted to the south of that 
country, and those of Ireland to the districts of Down, Tyrone, and Armagh. 
Nature of the Permian Beds.—Owing to the dissimilarity of the Permian beds 
lying on either side of the Carboniferous ridge above referred to, I have arranged 
the Permian strata under two heads or types—those of the ‘‘ Lancastrian” and 
“‘Salopian.”{ 
The beds of the “ Lancastrian type” belong to the north of England, and may 
thus be described in the west and east of that area :— 
Permian Beds of the Lancastrian type.§ 
West. East. 
Bands of limestone, sometimes magnesian, ( Marls. 
Opper Division. with redmarls. Fossils—Zwurbo, Rissoa, ) Upper Limestone. Fossils, 
Natica, Axinus, Schizodus, &e. Marls. marine. 
Magnesian Limestone. 
Lower Division. Lower Red Sandstone, : j . Lower Red or Yellow Sandstone. 
On the other hand, the beds of the “Salopian type” are restricted to the west 
and central parts of England, and consist of a thick series of red and purple 
sandstones, clays, shales, with calcareous conglomerates and breccias or boulder beds. 
The typical section occurs at Enville, im Salop. 
The boulder beds are exceedingly like those formed by the agency of floating ice, 
consisting of accumulations of red, stony, clay, with sub-angular fragments of trap, 
Silurian, and Cambrian rocks, some of which show surfaces slightly glaciated. 
Professor Ramsay considers that these breccias have been formed in waters filled with 
floating ice derived from lands lying towards the north-west of the submerged 
area,|| These accumulations occur in Shropshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, 
Warwickshire, and at Armagh, in Ireland. ‘here are also beds of calcareous 
*« Phys, Geol. and Geog. of Great Britain.” 5th edition, p. 147. 
+ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxv., pp. 171-184 ; also, “ Triassic and Permian Rocks, &c,” Mem. 
Geol. Survey, p. 10. 
t Lbed., p. 11. 
§The exact representation of the series in Lancashire by that of Durham and Yorkshire (though 
not identical in character) proves that these beds were originally physically connected across the country, 
as shown in Fig. 2, Plate X XIX. 
|| Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xi., p. 189. 
q “ Phys. Geol. and Geog. of Ireland,” p. 46, and “ Explan. Mem. Geol. of Armagh.” Mem. Geol. 
Survey, sheet 47. 
