XXII PREFACE. 
almost in solitude. I completed my traverses in North Devon and South Devon, and I traced 
Fossil-bearing Strata on the South-eastern Coast of Cornwall; and then doubling round from 
Penzance to the Northern Coast of the County, I obtained fossils partly by digging them from 
the rocks, and parily as gifts from my friends; and continued my way till I found myself once 
again among the rich Fossil-bearing quarries of Petherwin. 
Late in the autumn of 1838 I brought back with me good sectional and paleontological 
evidence, which seemed to prove that nearly all the groups in the two Counties I had examined 
were of an older date than the Carboniferous rocks of North Devon, and of a newer date than 
the newest rocks in the system of Siluria. When I expounded this evidence to Murchison, 
he opposed it by a succession of ingenious hypotheses, which could not however stand against the 
simple evidence of my Sections. But to settle this point for ever, I proposed that we should 
adjourn to the house of Mr Sowerby, and, if possible, re-examine the hamper of fossils we had sent 
to him in the year 1836. The hamper was found in the exact state in which we had last seen 
it; nor do I believe that Mr Sowerby had ever opened it. However that might be; on opening 
the hamper, we saw a very good series of Devon Fossils with well-marked localities; but 
we saw nothing resembling a characteristic Caradoc species. Thus the Devonian System 
gradually became established, and the results from Sectional and Fossil evidence were in per- 
fect harmony; and thus we took the first step, which I followed up in subsequent years; and 
much good work has been done since among the rocks of that series. 
The next year formed an epoch in the history of European Geology; for in the early 
part of 1839 the “Silurian System” was first published. It was beautifully embellished and 
contained an accurate delineation and description of the most ancient Palozoic Fossils 
of a large portion of Wales and some of the adjoining counties, such as had never 
before appeared in any Geological work. For it professed to arrange the lists of Fossils 
and the Groups of Strata in a true order of superposition. It had cost the Author seven 
years’ field labour, and he was assisted by three distinguished naturalists in determining 
the classification and the nomenclature of his multitudinous fossils. It is no part of my duty 
to attempt a task far beyond my power—yvyiz. to assign the proportional honours due to each 
of the scientific workmen who had contributed to the great work. But the chief honour 
will ever be given to the author of the System, who brought the materials together and 
arranged them in that manner in which they are seen in his splendid work. Under his 
hands the older Paleozoic Geology had assumed a new and a nobler type, and the highest 
praise was given to his work in all the scientific Journals of Europe and the United 
States; and as years advanced new honours accumulated on the author's head. 
During the summer of the same year (1839), I joined my friend in a visit to the 
Rhenish Provinces and the North of Germany, for the purpose of following out those 
