The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-03 00:00:00

SWEDISH FOSSILS.

Mr. J. C. JEFFREYS gave a list of the upper tertiary fos-
sils of Uddewalla, in Sweden.

.11 the course of a conversation which followed,

Sir C. ',YELL, referring to certain shells which had been
found in Wales, said it was proved to demonstration that
the whole of Snowdonia, the highest mountains in Wales,
were islands at the time the shells existed. The changes
that must have taken place in the earth's crust to produce
this permanent upheaval were really most astonishing, and
it was proved how the study of the living species of shells,
which Mr. Jeffreys had so successfully cultivated, opened
up wonderful geological inferences in regard to the changes
that had taken place in the earth in modern times.
Mr. JEFFREYS also read a paper, contributed by Dr. As
W. Maim, " On the Upper Tertiary Strata of the Bohuslan
District." This was another contribution from Sweden.
Jeffreyii stated that it had been accompanied by a slab,
which unfortunately excited the suspicions of the Customs
officers, who, suspecting perhaps the concealment of brandy
or cigars, or concluding that the slab was rubbish, broke it
up and destroyed it.
The PRESIDENT remarked that observation was now esta-
blished beyond the possibility of a doubt that certain por.
dons of the north of Europe were now being elevated at a
slow, still comparatively speaking rapid, rate above the level
of the sea, and also that we had in our country, especially
in Wales, most conclusive evidence that the land had been
elevated to an enormous height within a comparatively recent
period. Dr. Maim had shown that there had been almost
magical transformation in Sweden, but nearer home we might
find the same class of phenomena. He had now to call
attention to a most extraordinary depression between Dur-
ham and the south of the Tyne. The paper to be read
showed that at a recent period, comparatively speaking,
there had been a channel of considerable depth between
Durham and a point above the High Level Bridge. The
subject was of much importance to the coal trade, and it had
excited great interest among viewers and miners generally.
THE PERMIAN ROCKS OF THE NORTH WEST OF ENGLAND.
Sir RODERICK MURcHISON, in introducing this subject,
described the Permian rocks as the newest pelseozoic de-
posits, forming a natural group characterised by community
of animal and vegetable life, existing in various parts of
Europe ; and said that, until he proposed the term Permian,
this group had no collective nawe. In the east of England
there was no perceptible deposit that could be classed with
the Permian. In the north-west, particularly at St. Bees'
Head and in the valleys leading from the river Eden to the
Pennine range, there was a remarkable display of rocks,
sandstones, and conglomerates, which were linked indis-
solubly and conformably with the magnesian limestones.
The lower portion of the deposit over a very large portion
of England was formerly called the Lower Red Sandstone.
All these deposits were in the first instance admirably de-
scribed by Professor Sedgwick, whose description had been
the foundation of our knowledge on this subject. His
reason for proposing this simple name was that he found
on the continent the characteristics of the formation spread
over a country twice as large as France ; and when the
same community of character was found in this
country, geologists adopted the name and applied
it to this country. In Germany, he had asserted that there
was a great overlying sandstone superposed on the magne-
sian limestone which formed the upper part of the group ;
and he showed in all sections that were typical that this
mass of sandstone went with the magnesian limestone, and
was completely separated from the Triassic deposits which
were named the new Red Sandstones. This conclusion was
steadily contested by many German authorities.who did not
like to part with any portion of their Bender Sandstein or to
accord any part of it to his Permian group. Amongst these
who opposed this view was Dr. Geinitz,who had endeavoured
to show that it was a dual deposit, and not a triad deposit,
and he now called it Dias. Against that he (Sir Roderick)
had entered his protest. He was now charmed to find that
the labours of Mr. Binney, followed by those of Professor
Harkness, and confirmed by his own survey of the rocks,
that in reality the west side of England offered the most
complete confirmation that could bo given of the tripartite
arrangement of the Permian group, and completely fortified
him in the opinion he promulgated that the Germans were
wrong and that he was right. A detailed examination of the
rocks, which he had been looking at with Professor Hark-
ness, had led him to the conviction that if you ascend any
one of the little groups, particularly the Hilton group, from
the vale of Eden, up to the great Pennine fault, you will
find a concession of conglomerate beds overlaying the enor-
mous mass of the lower portion of this great group. The
details were explained by Professor Harkness, whose ob-
servations he had confirmed. He called attention to the
value of them in reference to certain beds of plants which
were absolutely Permian plants. Above the limestone and
conglomerate came a series of clay or shale—he would call
them marl—which he associated with sandstone. They passed
comfortably without any break whatever into the upper
sandstone. He was sure Mr. Binney would sustain all he had
said in reference to this group being a great paleozoic trias.
He did not like the words dias and tries, because in England
we had no trim; ; there was no central member of the sys-
tem ; the name was given to that superior formation by a
German geologist, because the division was clear in that part
of the country. It was not so, however, in other parts ; and
no general name ought to be given from the division of rock
h
dnedmionst any one country. St. Bees head exhibited
a small that
instructivehappened
portion of the roth-todte-lie-
g ae
(redan dead Hers) of the Germans, or the lower red
dt aoppee
of English geology. The conglomerates whieh
tsnanse
were deposited unconformably on the summit, called sand-
and the breccia entered into all the sinuosities,
anne
stones iu that country, were enroded in a most irregular
m
in that part a complete physical break between
coal, sandstones, and the superjacent Permian rocks. This
was an important point, showingi
because an eminent German geolo-
gist had endeavoured to class this roth-tedte-liegende with
a coal deposit. St. Bees Head was an instance of the total
separation of the carboniferous deposit, and the beginning
of a new series of things in these breccia and gravel and
sand, and so forth entering into all the sinuosities of the
sea worn or water worn rock. Immediately upon this
breccia, the representative of the yellow sandstones, the
lower of this country, which underlie the magnesian lime-
stone to the west, comes clearlyunequivocal magnesian lime-
stone, filled with some fossils that would be found at Sun-
derland and along the Hartlepool coast. There they had,
then, magnesian limestone distinctly resting on this lower
breccia, and superposed and passing upwards, without the
slightest break in the argillaceous beds, into the sandstones.
He would say a word on a point of importance to gentlemen
living in mining districts. In Germany this deposit would
not have been known so well had there not existed under
it a certain thin band called kupfer• schiefer, which, though
thin, was in that part of Germany explored most pertina-
ciously by the miners, and followed everywhere. In this
country the roth-todte-liegende afforded no mineral sub-
stance, and we had been hitherto unaquainted with the
value of a deposit to which he would now call attention. It
was the most important mineral deposit that had aver been
discovered in the north-west of England, and it was en-
riching the people to an incredible extent. He referred
to the hematite deposits in the cavities of the moua-
tain limestone. It had often been asked—to what age are
we to attribute this enormous infilling of this beautiful
hematite ironstone ? There are some who had attributed
it to tertiary periods. Professor Phillips was the first who
made the suggestion that it was probably connected with
the very series of deposits to which he now called attention.
Professor Phillips, therefore, had the great merit of having
pointed out the way to them, and he would allow that to-day
they had a proof of the value of his suggestion, with which
he was possibly unacquainted before. He had said that the
bottom of this series was this great accumulation of breccia.
It was distinctly seen as forming the bottom part of it in
many parts of Furness. There Were masses of brockram
superjacent to, and making a natural cover for the haema-
tite limestone. The haematite had been frequently worked
out by old workmen from the cavities under the breccia.
This discovery enriched his Permian group, and it showed
that that period of the earth, so remarkable in G,rinany for
the uppouring of porphyry, and the great change which
took place in the earth after the formation of coalvnriched
the Permian system by the formation of a deposit of the
richest and most valuable mineral in the British Isles.
(Applause.)
Mr. BINNEY, of Manchester, said it was only after a good
many years tracking of these beds on the west side of the
Pennine range that he really did, five years ago, find red
sandstone, and then he unquestionably found a series of red
clays passing up in to a series of red sandstone. He had been
to St. Bees Head, and he could confirm what Sir R. Mur-
chison had said. The conglomerate rested totally uncon-
formably on the rock underneath. He never saw a more
complete specimen of non-conformability than at White-
haven between the conglomerate and the sandstone. (Sir
Roderick Mureh ison—The old.) Professor Sedgwick many
years ago called it the old red sandstone, but he (Mr. Binney)
called it coal-measure rock.
Mr. HONVES said that he showed Dr. Genitz the red
rocks at Tynemouth, and he said they were roth-todte-