The World Before the Deluge

The lowest Bunter formation shows itself in France, in the Pyrenees, around the central plateau in the Var, and upon both flanks of the Vosges mountains. It is represented in south-western and central Germany, in Belgium, in Switzerland, in Sardinia, in Spain, in Poland, in the Tyrol, in Bohemia, in Moravia, and in Russia. M. D'Orbigny states, from his own observation, that it covers vast surfaces in the mountainous regions of Bolivia, in South America. It is recognised in the United States, in Columbia, in the Great Antilles, and in Mexico. The Bunter in France is reduced to the variegated sandstone, except around the Vosges, in the Var, and the Black Forest, where it is accompanied by the Muschelkalk. In Germany it furnishes building-stone of excellent quality; many great edifices, in particular the cathedrals, so much admired on the Rhine — such, for example, as those of Strasbourg and Fribourg — are constructed of this stone, the sombre tints of which singularly relieve the grandeur and majesty of the Gothic architecture. Whole cities in Germany are built of the brownish-red stones drawn from its mottled sandstone quarries. In

England, in Scotland, and in Ireland this formation extends from north to south through the whole length of the country. " This old land," says Professor Ramsay,* " consisted in great part of what we now know as Wales, and the adjacent counties of Hereford, Monmouth, and Shropshire; of part of Devon and Cornwall, Cumberland, the Pennine chain, and all the mountainous parts of Scotland. Around old Wales, and part of Cumberland, and probably all round and over great part of Devon and Cornwall, the New Red Sandstone was deposited. Part, at least, of this oldest of the Secondary rocks was formed of the material of the older Palaeozoic strata, that had then risen above the surface of the water. The New Red Sandstone series consists in its lower members of beds of red sandstone and conglomerate, more than i,ooo feet thick, and above them are placed red and green marls, chiefly red, which in Germany are called the Keuper strata, and in England the New Red Marl. These formations range from the mouth of the Mersey, round the borders of Wales, to the estuary of the Severn, eastwards into Warwickshire, and thence northwards into Yorkshire and Northumberland, along the eastern border of the Magnesian Limestone. They also form the bottom of the valley of the Eden, and skirt Cumberland on the west; in the centre of England the unequal hardness of its sub-divisions sometimes giving rise to minor escarpments, ove^"looking plains and undulating grounds of softer strata." " Different members of the group rest in England, in some region or other," says Lyell, " on almost every principal member of the Palaeozoic series, on Cambrian, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, and Permian rocks; and there is evidence everywhere of disturbance, contortion, partial upheaval into land, and vast denudations which the older rocks underwent before and during the deposition of the successive strata of the New Red Sandstone group." ("Elements of Geology," p. 439-) The MuschelkalJz consists of beds of compact limestone, often greyish, sometimes black, alternating with marl and clay, and commonly containing such numbers of shells that the name of shelly limestone {Muschelkalk) has been given to the formation by the Germans. The beds are sometimes magnesian, especially in the lower strata, which contain deposits of gypsum and rock-salt.

The seas of this sub-period, which is named after the innumerable masses of shells inclosed in the rocks which it represents, included, besides great numbers of Mollusca, Saurian Reptiles of twelve different

• "The Physical Geography and Geology of Great Britain," 2nd ed., p. 60.

MUSCHELKALK.

gen«era, some Turtles, and six new genera of Fishes clothed with a cuirass. Let us pause at the Mollusca which peopled the Triassic seas. Among the shells characteristic of the Muschelkalk period, we mention Natica Gailiardoti, Rosidlaria aiitiqiia, Lima striata, Avicula socialis, Terebratula vulgaris, Turbo7iilla diihia, Afyophoria vulgaris^ Nautilus hexagonalis, and Ceratites nodosus. The Ceratites, of which a species is here represented (Fig. 81), form a genus closely allied tc the Ammo7iites, which seem to have played such an important part in the ancient seas, but which have no existence in those of our era, either in species or even in genus. This Ceratite is found in the Muschelkalk of Germany, a formation which has no equivalent in England, but which is a compact greyish limestone underlying the saliferous rocks in Germany, and including beds of dolomite with gypsum and rock-salt. The Mytilus or Mussel, which properly belonged to this age, are acephalous (or headless) Molluscs with elongated triangular shells, of which there are many species found in our Fig. 81.— Ceratites nodosUS. (Muschelkalk.) •existing seas. Lima, Myophoria, Posi-dofiia, and Avicula, are acephalous Molluscs of the same period. The two genera Natica and Rostcllaria belong to the Gasteropoda, and are abundant in the Muschelkalk in France, Germany, and Poland.

Among the Echinoderms belonging to this period may be mentioned Eiicrinus moniliformis and E. liliiformis, or lily encrinite (Fig. 82), whose remains, constituting in some localities whole beds ■of rock, show the slow progress with which this zoophyte formed beds of limestone in the clear seas of the period. To these may be added, among the Mollusca, Avicula subcostata and Myophoria vulgaris.

In the Muschelkalk are found the skull and teeth of Placodus .gigas, a reptile which was originally placed by Agassiz among the class of Fishes; but more perfect specimens have satisfied Professor Owen that it was a Saurian Reptile.

It may be added, that the presence of a few genera, peculiar to the Primary epoch, which entirely disappeared during the sub.-period,

I90 THE WORLD BEFORE THE DELUGE,

and the appearance for the first time of some other animals peculiar to the Jurassic period, give to the Muschelkalk fauna the appearance of being one of passage from one period to the other. The seas, then, contained a few Reptiles, probably inhabitants of the ■ banks of rivers, as Fhyfosaurus, Capitosaurus, &c,, and sundry Fishes, as Sphoerodus and Pyaiodus. In this sub-period we shall say nothing of the Land-Turtles, which for the first time now appear; but, we should note, that at the Bunter period a gigantic Reptile appears, on which the opinions of geologists were for a long while at variance. In the argillaceous rocks of the Muschelkalk period imprints of the foot of some animal were discovered in the sandstones of Storeton Hill, in Cheshire, and in the New Red Sandstone of parts of Warwickshire, as well as in Thuringia, and Hesseburg in Saxony, which very much resembled the impression that might be made in soft clay by the outstretched fingers and thumb of a human hand. These traces were made by a species of Reptile furnished with four feet, the two fore-feet being much broader than the hinder two. The head, pelvis, and scapula only of this strange-looking animal have been found, but these are considered to have belonged to a gigantic air-breathing reptile closely connected with the Batrachians. It is thought that the head was not naked, but protected by a bony cushion; that its jaws were armed with conical teeth, of great strength and of a complicated structure. This curious and uncouth-looking creature, of which the woodcut Fig. 83 is a restoration,

Fig. 82. — Encrinus has been named the Cheirotheriuin, or Labyri?i-liliiformis. thodo?i, from the complicated arrangement of the cementing layer of the teeth. (See also Fig. i, p. 12.)

Another Reptile of great dimensions — which would seem to have been intended to prepare the way for the appearance of the enormous Saurians which present themselves in the Jurassic period — was the JS/ot/iosauriis, a species of marine Crocodile, of which a restoration has been attempted in Plate XIII. opposite.

It has been supposed, from certain impressions which appear in the Keuper sandstones of the Connecticut river in North America,

XIII.—Ideal Landscape of the Muschelkalk Sub-period.

MUSCHELKALK FLORA.

thatus; 'Birdsthe flagsmadeon whichtheir appearancethese occur inbythethousandsperiod whichshow nowthe tracksoccupiesof an animal of great size (some 20 inches long and \ feet apart), presenting the impression of three toes, like some of the Struthionidae or Ostriches, accompanied by raindrops. No remains of the skeletons

Fig 83.~Labyrinthodon restored. One-twentieth natural size.

of birds have been met with in rocks of this period, and the footprints in question are all that -can be alleged in su.pport of the hypothesis. M. Ad. Brongniart places the commencement of dicotyledonour^ gymnosperm plants in this age. The characteristics of this Flora consist in numerous Ferns, constituting genera now extinct, such as Anomoptcris and Crematopteris. The true Equiscta are rare in it. The Calamites, or, rather, the Calainodendj-a, abound. The g)Tnnosperms are represented by the genera Cojiifer, Voltzia, and haidingera, N

oi which both species and individuals are very numerous in the formation of this period. Among the species of plants which characterise this formation, we may mention Neiwopteris elegans, Calaviites arenaceus^ Voltzia heterophylla, Haidiiigera speciosa. The Haidingera^ belonging to the tribe of Abieti7iXj were plants with large leaves, analogous to those of our Damara^ growing close together, and nearly imbricated, as in the Araucaria. Their fruit, which are cones with rounded scales,, are imbricated, and have only a single seed, thus bearing out the strong resemblance which has been traced between these fossil plants and the Damara. The Voltzias (Fig. 84), which seem to have formed the greater part of the forests were a genus of Cupressinaceae, now extinct,, which are well characterised among the fossil Conifers of the period. The alternate spiral leaves, forming five to eight rows sessile, that is, sitting close to the branch and drooping, have much in them analogous to the Cryptomerias. Their fruit was an oblong cone with scales, loosely imbricated, cuneiform or wedge-shaped, and, commonly, composed of from three to five obtuse lobes. In Fig. 84 we have a part of the stem, a branch with leaves and cone. In his " Botanic Geography," M. Lecoq thus describes the vegetation of the ancient world in the first period of the Triassic age: "While the variegated sandstone and mottled clays were being slowly deposited in regular beds by the waters, magnificent Ferns still exhibited their light and elegantly-carved leaves. Divers Protopteris and majestic Neuropteris-associated themselves in extensive forests, where vegetated also the Crematopteris typica of Schimper, the A?iomopteris Mongeotii of Brongniart, and the pretty Tricho??ia?iitcs myriophylhwi (Goppert). The Conifers of this epoch attain a very considerable development, and would form graceful forests of green trees. Elegant monocotyledons, representing the forms of tropical countries, seem to show themselves for the first time, the Yuccites Vogesiacus of Schimper constituted groups at once thickly serried and of great extent. " A family, hitherto doubtful, appears under the elegant form of Nilsso?iia Ilogardi, Schimp.; Cte7iis Hogardi, Brongn. It is still seen in the Zamites Vogesiacus^ Schimp.; and the group of the Cycads sharing at once in the organisation of the Conifers and the elegance of the Palms, now decorate the earth, which reveals in these new forms its vast fecundity. (See Fig. 72, p. 168.) " Of the herbaceous plants which formed the undergrowth of the forests, or which luxuriated in its cool marshes, the most remarkable is the ^thtophyllum speciosu??!, Schimp. Their organisation approximates