On the Recurrence of Glacial Phenomena During Great Continental Epochs

Abstract

IN the August number of the Geological Society of London I published two papers “On the Physical Relations of the New Red Marl, Rhætic Beds, and Lower Lias,” and “On the Red Rocks of England of older date than the Trias.” In the latter I attempted to prove that for the north of Europe and some other parts of the world, a great Continental epoch prevailed between the close of the upper Silurian times and the end of the Trias or commencement of the deposition of the Rhætic beds; in other words, that the Old Red sandstone, Carboniferous strata, Permian beds, and New Red series were chiefly formed under terrestrial conditions, all, with the exception of the Carboniferous series, in great lakes and inland seas, salt or fresh.