260 



Notwithstanding all the attention which has of late years been paid to the 

 subject of the Old Red Sandstone of Herefordshire, it still remains an object for 

 our careful investigation. Fresh discoveries are continually throwing a new 

 light on the relations of the Herefordshire beds to those of Scotland. The Les- 

 mahago black flags proved on a comparison of the similar, although varying, 

 species of fossils which at the same time were discovered in the Downton beds, 

 to be the equivalents of the latter,* and are now knownf to be overlaid by red 

 shales in which Cephalaspis Lyellii occurs — the relation of the Passage-Beds of 

 the Ludlow railway cutting to the Old Red have recently been elucidated by the 

 able investigations of Mi. Symonds, J in the Ledbury tunnel. He traces a gradual 

 succession from the Aymestry limestone through the Upper Ludlow and the 

 Downton Sandstone, which has there scarcely a representative, to the equivalents 

 of the Ludlow Passage-beds, identified by the occurrence in them of Auchenaspis 

 and Pterygotus Ludensis, and he finds that these beds pass upwards into a series 

 of red marls, with yellowish, grey, and pink, sandstones, containing Pteraspis 

 and Cephalaspis. 



At Trimpley, near Bewdley, Mr. Roberts has found in the Cornstones Cepha- 

 laspis Lyellii and Pteraspis Lloydii, and in the immediately underlying Grits, 

 Pteraspis Banksii, Pterygotus Ludensis, and Parka decipiens. When we add to 

 these facts the occurrence of Cephalaspis Lyellii and Pteraspides in the Cornstones 

 of Leysters, and numerous other parts of Herefordshire, and the discovery of 

 Eurypterus Symondsii in the Cornstones of Rowlstone, we cannot doubt that we 

 have in Herefordshire the equivalents of the Perthshire and Forfarshire§ beds, 

 in which Cephalaspis Lyellii, Pterygotus Anglicus, and Stylonurus are associated. 

 These beds have been styled by Sir Roderick Murchison as the Lower Old Red.^f 



I am not aware that we have any trace of the middle division (or Caithness 

 flags) characterised by Ptericthys oblongus, Cocosteus, Dipterus, Diplopterus, 

 and other fishes. Very recently, the Rev. Hugh Mitchell has discovered one of 

 these fishes, Dipterus, associated with Cephalaspis Lyellii, in the Lower Old Red 

 of Forfarshire. II Here then is a subject for our researches ; fresh discoveries 

 are continually made, and there is no reason why we may not, in the Woolhope 

 district, find some remains of fishes, which may either establish, or negative, the 

 existence of this threefold division of the Old Red. We have some traces of the 



* Murchison's " Lesmahago Silurians," Quarterly Journal, Geological Society, vol. iz, p. 

 15. Sailer's " Himaritopterus," ibid, p. 26. Banks' " Tilestones of Kington," ibid, p. 93. Mr. 

 D. Page, F.G S., remarks that this last paper "might as well have been written for the Tile- 

 stones of Forfar as for the Tilestones of Kington, so entirely similar are they in all their organic 

 remains " 



t Geikie's " Old Red Sandstones," Quarterly Journal, Geological Society, vol. 16, p. 214. 



X Symonds' " On Passage Beds at Ledbury," ibid, p. 193. 



§ Mr. Page informs me that the grey fissile flagstones and tilestones of Forfar "our lowest 

 Old Red," contain among other fossils, Lepidodendroid stems, Fucoids, and Zooterites, fern- 

 like fragments (Sphenopterys?', Pterygoti of several species, from ift. to 6ft, long ; Eurypteri, 

 two species ; Acanthodes Diplacanthus, two species ; Climatius, several ; Plectrodus, Icthyo- 

 lites undetermined, Cephalaspis, etc. 



U "Synoptical View of Old Red Sandstone," Quarterly Journal, Geological Society, vol. 

 15 p. 436- 



I! This statement was made on the information of a friend. I have since read Mr. Mitchell's 

 paper (Quarterly Journal, Geological Society, vol 17, p. 145), Dipterus is not there mentioned ; 

 but fossils belonging to the genera Acanthodes, Diplacanthus, and Ctenacanthus are mentioned 

 as occurring in these beds. 



