then comparatively anknown country, in which it was my good 

 fortune and happiness to be dwelling, and to the true development 

 of which I had, unknowingly, discovered the key, and made some 

 progress. With what zeal, industry, ability and success Sir Ro- 

 derick JMurchison has followed up these beginnings, and prosecuted 

 the identification of these rocks, through our own and the adjoining 

 counties, and the greater part of the North of Europe, into Asiatic 

 Russia, is shown by his great works on the c>i!urian System, (1838,) 

 and the Geology of Russia and the Ural Mountains, (1845) and the 

 various scientific journals of the time ; and how fiir it hns been 

 verified by the researches of others, more especially by the United 

 States' naturalists, will be seen in their own reports, and Sir Charles 

 Lyell's interesting volumes on his two visits to that country. We 

 ehall shortly have a condensed view of the known distribution of 

 these rocks over the Globe, by Sir Roderick Murchison, in his new 

 work " Siluria," now announced* The history of the Silurian 

 system must be sought in the ]>rocceedinirs of the Geologica' Society 

 of Lcmdon : tiio anniversary speeches of its Presidents, and in an 

 article by Dr. Kitton, in the Edinburgh Review, April 1841. 



The Leintwardinc meeting afforded us an excellent opportunity in 

 the section along the new road to Ludlow, for examining the lower 

 Ludlow rocks, between the Aymestry and Wenlock (= Scdgley and 

 Dudley) limestones; and passing through the Ayme.-try limestone, 

 we came upon the upper Ludlow rocks, which wo found again 

 succeeded by the Aymestry limestone at Downton, and on both 

 sides of the river Teme, near the How Bridge. Continuing thence 

 along the Downton Castle walks,in the gorge of the river, thriUgh 

 the upper Ludlow rocks, we arrived at their juncture with the 

 yellow micacious sandstone (known as Downton Castle building 

 stone), near the Castle bridge ; noticing beret the hitherto disco- 



• Published May, 1854, of which a new edition is now preparing. The 

 reader will do well to consult the reviews ot tbis work, in the Nonli British 

 Review, and Quarterly Review. October, 1654. 



t My friend, the late Dr. Thomas I.loyd, of Ludlow, in 1832 first noticed the 

 existence of fossils in the old red sandstone ot Herelonlshire, about the Wyld, 

 near Leominster, and soon afterwards near Downton Hall, and other pliices 

 in the neifthliourhooil ol Ludlow Ouchus Muri-hisoni was diseovered by 

 myself in tha.n:u(lstones ot the upper Ludlow, near Itatchcou. I8.!3. and 

 Fterynotus poblimaticus in the exact equivalent, near Cruft t^astle. in 1:35. 

 The LuclloxvT)one bed was laid open 1834. by workmen en};a};e 1 in a <|uany— 

 now filled up — on the site of the house at the entrance to Ludionl churchyard 

 from the bridge. Its position is near the bottom of the yellow sandstone, 

 known as Downton Castle building stone ; a repetition of the bed, verticalU/ 



