12 



immediately underlying grits, Pteraspis Banksii, PterygotusLudensis, 

 and Parka decipiens. Wlien we add to these facts the occurrence 

 of Cephalasj^is Lyellii and Pteraspides in the cornstones of Laysters, 

 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 Perth- 

 shire and Forfarshii'e * beds, in which Cephalaspis Lyellii, Pterygotus 

 Anglicus, and Stylonurus are associated. These beds have been 

 styled by Sir Eoderick Murchison as the Lower Old Eed. t 



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 Eev, 

 Hugh Mitchell has discovered one of these fishes, Dipterus, 

 associated with Cephalaspis Lyellii, in the Lower Old Eed of 

 Forfarshire. X 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 three- 

 fold division of the Old Eed. We have some traces of the upper 

 division. A scale of Holoptychius nobilissimus, found by Sib 

 Eoderick Murchison on the Daren, near CrickhoweU, prior to the 

 publication of the Siliman System, was the only indication we had 



* Mr. Page informs me tliat tlie grey fissile flagstones and tilestones of 

 Forfar, "our lowest Old Eed," contain among other fossils, Lepidodendroid 

 stems, Fucoids and Zooterites, fern-like fragments (Splienopterys ?), Pterygoti 

 of several species, from 1ft. to 6ft. long ; Eurypteri, two species ; Acanthodes 

 Diplacanthus, two species ; CHmatius (several) ; Plectrodus, Icthyolites unde- 

 termined, Cephalaspis, &c. 



t "Synoptical View of Old Red Sandstone," Quarterly Journal, Geological 

 Society, vol. 15, p. 436. 



X This statement was made on the information of a fi-iend. 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 Cteuacanthus are mentioned as occurring in 

 these beds. 



