NEW RED SANDSTONE.
“Trias” is an arbitrary term applied in geology to the upper division of a vast series of red loams, shales, and sandstones, interposed between the lias and the coal, in the midland and western counties of England. This series is collectively called the “New Red Sandstone formation,” to distinguish it from the “Old Red Sandstone formation,” of similar or identical mineral character, which lies immediately beneath the coal.
The animals which have been restored and placed on the lowest formation of the Secondary Island, are peculiar to the “triassic,” or upper division of the “New Red Sandstone” series, which division consists, in England, of saliferous (salt-including) shales and sandstones, from 1000 to 1500 feet thick in Lancashire and Cheshire, answering to the formation called “Keuper-sandstone” by the German geologists; and of sandstone and quartzose conglomerate of 600 feet in thickness, answering to the German “Bunter-sandstone.”
The largest and most characteristic animals of the trias are reptiles of the order