500 Prof. Sedgwick on the May Hill Sandstone, 



knew them, they were the same as the '* Lower Silurian '* fossils ; 

 while my friend had described and figured numerous fossils from 

 two sub-groups, but had greatly mistaken their place in the 

 general section of North Wales. I also suggested as a compro- 

 mise the adoption of the name Protozoic (first thrown out by 

 Sir R. I. Murchison himself) for the whole Cambrian series, — 

 it being expressly understood that wherever the demarcation 

 could be drawn, all the groups above it (to the "Upper Silurian" 

 base) should be regarded as Cambro-Silurian, — all below it, as 

 Cambrian. This compromise was rejected; for my friend, with- 

 out a single word of communication to myself, brushed out his 

 base line, and coloured all the older palaeozoic rocks of North 

 and South Wales as "Lower Silurian/' 



Other schemes of Nomenclature , ^c. 



Before I bring these discussions to an end, I wish the reader 

 to bear in mind, that the observations of 1842 and 1843 did not 

 invalidate, but confirmed the truth of the whole Cambrian series, 

 as established by myself in 1831 and 1832. On the contrary, 

 that the same observations made it almost certain that the rela- 

 tions of the " Lower Silurian '' groups of South Wales to my 

 Upper Cambrian groups were misunderstood and misrepresented 

 in the Silurian sections. Hence it was that I thought I had pro- 

 posed a very'generous compromise, viz. that the name Upper Cam' 

 brian should disappear, and in its place we should use CambrO' 

 Silurian — the name Cambrian being confined to the groups below 

 the Bala limestone ; and that in those places where the subdivisions 

 could not be established on evidence, the whole fossiliferous series 

 below the Wenlock shale should be called Protozoic — that term 

 including both the fossiliferous Cambrian and Lower Silurian 

 groups. (Proceedings of Geol. Soc, vol. iv. p. 223.) 



But in the same volume of the Proceedings (p. 251) is 

 another abstract with my name affixed to it. In point of fact, 

 it is an abridgement of two long papers recording the observa- 

 tions of Mr. Salter and myself, made both in 1842 and 1843. 

 It was composed by the President of the Society, and I was not 

 permitted, after repeated applications, even to see the proof 

 sheets. It was got up, I doubt not, with much care ; but what 

 becomes in it of my proposed compromise ? In the accom- 

 panying map, I am stated to make Protozoic the equivalent of 

 Lower Silurian ! I never committed an act so suicidal : indeed 

 I had most carefully, as I thought, fenced myself against any 

 such inference, as appears by a reference to the Proceedings 

 (vol. iv. p. 221). One of the definitions in my reduced map was 

 changed without my knowledge : and strange as it may seem (never 



