16 
of Lower New Red age, have really come {from Carboniferous 
rocks stained red by ferruginous infiltrations derived from the 
New Red which covered these rocks at no very remote period. 
The Carboniferous facies of such fossils counts, therefore, for 
nothing at all in the present connection. On the other hand, the 
vegetable remains occurring in rocks of indubitable New Red age, 
like those of the Marl Slate and the Plant Beds, present a facies 
as distinctly Neozoic as do any that have been recorded from the 
Upper New Red. 
As regards the vertebrate fauna, I understand from Dr. Traquair, 
whose authority in such matters no one will question, that some, 
at least, of the fish remains from the Magnesian Limestone are of 
Neozoic types. The footprints of air-breathing vertebrates, again, — 
whose vestiges occur in such variety in the Lower New Red 
(Penrith Sandstone), cannot be distinguished from those discovered 
in the Upper New Red or Trias. The general character of these 
Penrith Sandstone footprints seems to indicate a comparatively 
high grade of organization, Sauropsidan in many cases; and the 
relatively small size of the impressions of the fore limbs as com- 
pared with the hind, shews that we are dealing with vestiges of 
Saurians whose locomotion was, already, chiefly effected by their 
hind limbs. No one can study the interesting footprints collected 
from the Penrith Sandstone of Edenhall by Mr. and Miss Smith 
of Penrith, without being struck by this interesting feature. It is 
many years ago that Conybeare, Agassiz, Phillips, Edward Forbes, 
not to mention names of lesser note, expressed their belief that these 
grades of evolution denote Neozoic rather than Paleozoic times. 
The invertebrate fossils of the New Red Series come chiefly 
from the Magnesian Limestone itself’ They belong, without 
exception, to fersistent types, and their value as aids to chronology 
is on a par with that of the paleeozoic types of invertebrata occur- 
ring in the Hallstadt and St. Cassian Beds. 
HISTORY OF THE RED ROCKS. 
The oldest strata (Penrith Sandstone and the Brockrams) appear 
to have been deposited in a large depression of the earth’s surface, 
