340 Proceedings of the British Association. 



had exaggerated the difference of opinion then before the meeting. 

 He was rather inclined to coincide with Messrs Sedgwick and Mur- 

 chison in considering the strata in dispute as referable to the gene- 

 ral carboniferous system, and from the general resemblance of the 

 formations to those of Pembrokeshire, the probability was much 

 strengthened — Professor Phillips conceived that it had been satis- 

 factorily proved, that there existed a coal basin in the interior of 

 Devonshire, although, at first sight, from the unprofitable nature of 

 the contained coal, being the kind called Culm, some hesitation 

 might have taken place as to assigning it its true position. But 

 doubts must vanish on inspecting the organic remains : and here he 

 might observe, that it was a mistake to suppose that Dr Smith, the 

 founder of English geology, had ever intended to limit the range 

 of these remains as some had accused him of. We might readily 

 assume, and observation has confirmed, that some organic remains 

 of one stratum may be found in contiguous strata, associated with 

 fossils of diflferent kinds, so that organic remains alone are insuffi- 

 cient to point out distinctions in strata. But the general appear- 

 ance of the limestones of Devon was precisely similar to those of 

 the north of England, in regard both of mineral character and im- 

 bedded fossils. From their appearance, he had expected their in- 

 terstratification with shales, and Mr Murchison had confirmed this 

 supposition. The Devon limestone corresponded indeed with the 

 upper bed of the Yorkshire limestone ; in the former he had de- 

 tected a shell, a species of Anodon, which he had not observed in 

 the latter ; but the species of Posidonia found in both exactly cor- 

 respond. Perhaps one cause of mistake might have been the little 

 attention paid to the black limestone of Craven, by Mr Conybeare, 

 and to this limestone there was a most striking resemblance in the 

 black variety of Devonshire. He alluded to the extraordinary ano- 

 maly of coal plants having been found in the Alps, associated with 

 oolites, but this might be an exception from the general law, and 

 exceptions there must be ; still it must be allowed, that organic life 

 must have a constant relation to the state of the actual surface. He 

 came to the conclusion, that the Devon district would not offer any 

 anomaly in geological arrangement, but that it would correspond in 

 arrangement with the other parts of the country, and that a fruitful 

 source of error is the hitherto vague term Greywacke, which has 

 been applied indiscriminately to a great variety of rocks, so as to 

 include many of different ages throughout this county — Dr Buck- 

 land congratulated the meeting on the difference of opinion among 



