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farshire beds and the lower Comstones of this country ; the middle series or 

 Cziithness flagstones, bituminous and calcareous ; and thurd, the uppermost, 

 consisting of yellow sandstones. These latter have been a vexata quasstio ; for 

 they have been described by Sir Richard Griffiths, in Ireland, as Carboniferous, 

 as also by Mr. Jukes. Their proper place seems to be now definitely settled as the 

 uppermost member of the Old Red, and the equivalents of the Dura-Den beds in 

 Fifeshire, which have proved so rich in fish remains. In this country, the same 

 beds are to be found, according to Mr Symonds emd Dr. Melville, in the escarp- 

 ment of the Daren, near Crickhowell, just underlying the Mountam Limestone 

 and Millstone Grit of Pen Cerig Caleb. Sir R. Murchison once found here a scale 

 of Holoptychius nobiUssimus, a very characteristic fish, which seems to corro- 

 borate the assumption ; and I hope some day in the course of the summer, to be 

 able to examine it more thoroughly than I have yet done. The same beds are, 

 I think, to be found on the opposite side of the valley of the Usk, under the 

 limestone of the Llangattock quEurries. At Dura-Den they appear to be one 

 mass of fish remains in the most perfect preservation, and of the most charac- 

 teristic type. A still higher point of interest lies in the fact that in these upper 

 yellow sandstones, reptilian remains have been found of an organization still 

 higher than even the Telerpeton Elgiiiensis. The Stagonolepis, which was for 

 long considered a fish, has been declared by Professor Huxley to present a very 

 close resemblance in some points to the Crocodilian, and in others to the Lacei tian 

 tribes ; in fact, it diverges materially from all known and recent forms. This 

 circumstance warns us not to pin our faith too strongly on the limits of animal 

 life, for of late many an example has occurred which has forced us to become more 

 liberal (to use a political phrase) in our determining points, both as to horizons 

 of life, as well as individual features. Before I quit the subject of the Old Red, 

 I must not omit to mention the discovery of the fish bed on the Wall Hills at 

 Ledbury, which has yielded to the prjuseworthy researches of two workmg men, 

 Pteraspis and Ceratiocaris, associated with the Holoptychius, the earliest true 

 Ccirboniferous fish. 



Ascending into the higher beds of the Carboniferous system, I fear not so 

 much has been done ; although views have been lately put forth which will ere 

 long change many of the theories of coal vegetation. One of the principal of these 

 views is, that the waters of the Coal Measure age were all salt, and that there were 

 no fresh-water deposits whatever. I may mention here that water has fre- 

 quently been found at the bottom of deep mines, strongly and thoroughly salt : 

 and after all, the supposition that such fishes as the Cslacanth, the Pateoniscus, 

 and the Amblypterus, belonged to fresh water, or that the Unio or Anthracosia 

 was of fresh or biackish water origin, is very gratuitous, foi Paleontologists are 

 much in doubt whether the Uniones, the strongholds of the fresh-water theorists, 

 were not marine inhabitants. The botany of the Coal Measure flora is still 

 dubious on many points, and there are several plants about which the geologico- 

 botanists seem imwilling to pronounce a decided opinion. The great Stigmarian 

 question seems finally set at rest, principally by the labours of my friend, Mr. 

 Binney, of Manchester, but there are others still waiting to be solved, such as the 



