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LV. Remarks on a Note in Prof. Sedgwick and Mr. Mur- 

 chison's Communication in the last Number. By John Phil- 

 lips, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S., Professor of Geology in King's 

 College. 



To R. Taylor, Esq. 

 Mvr DEAR SiK, York, April 11, 1839. 



IN the communication regarding the classification of De- 

 vonshire strata by Professor Sedgwick and Mr. Murchison 

 (contained in the last Number of the Philosophical Magazine), 

 I find my name (p. 257, note) connected with a ' promise,' 

 which it appears to me necessary both to explain and to fulfil 

 as soon as possible after the pledge which has been unex- 

 pectedly and publicly given for me. This is the more neces- 

 sary because the statement alluded to does not express com- 

 pletely either the error assigned, or the correction prepared. 



There is no ' inaccuracy'' in the acknowledgement engraved 

 on my geological map, that Devonshire is coloured from 

 Mr. De la Beche. On the contrary, it is to Mr. De la Beche, 

 alone, that I am indebted for the means of colouring geolo- 

 gically Cornwall, Devon, and West Somerset. I have, for 

 these districts, merely copied the complete map with which he 

 most kindly furnished me early in the year 183S; nor have I 

 since applied to any person for information on those parts of 

 the country. 



The acknowledgement on my map is, however, in one re- 

 spect incomplete ; it might have been stated that in colouring 

 as a part of the Carboniferous System the disputed culm de- 

 posits of Devonshire, I was following the classification first 

 proposed by Pi'ofessor Sedgwick and Mr. Murchison at the 

 Bristol Meeting of the British Association. This is the cor- 

 rection, or rather addition, which I have promised to make in 

 the next edition of my map. 



It is perhaps unnecessary to do this, since the brief notices 

 on my map had no other object than to authenticate the dc- 

 li?ieatio)i, and the classification in question was perfectly 

 known to geologists, and secured to the right owners by se- 

 veral publications of two years earlier date*. It is, however, 

 possible, as the authors of this very important change in the 

 systematic distribution of English strata appear to think, that 

 by my silence concerning their labours an erroneous impres- 



* See in particular the Sixth Report (183G) of the British Association, 

 p. 95, and Athcna;uni for 1836, p. (ill. The latter contains the whole 

 ducmslun of the subject at the Bristol Meeting of the Association, with a 

 section according to the new views there advocated. A working nKi[) was 

 then exhibited by Mr. Murchison, coloured to correspond with the sec- 

 tion. 



Phil. Mag. S. 3. Vol. 14. No. 90. May 1839. 2 A 



