1815.] On the Older Floetx Strata of Engiand. 21 
variety of orthoceratites, some of which were many feet in length. 
He observes that they distinguish this formation throughout Europe. 
He notices also pectinites, the oniscus, trilobites, a number of large 
madreporites, a great many trochites, entrochites, patell, a few 
ammonites, and a great number of other univalves. 
Saussure found in the lower chains of ‘the Alps, between Mont 
Blanc and Geneva, pectinites, terebratulites, gryphites, entro- 
chites, a great many corallites and madreporites, turbinites, and 
ammonites. 
I shall now mention some of the fossils found in the lime-stone 
rocks which accompany the coal formation in Britain, and which 
generally shut in or inclose the coal-fields. ; 
Orthoceratites, as observed by Dr. Fleming. Their existence in 
the coal-field of Linlithgowshire is not a solitary fact. I have seen 
one which was found in St. Vincent’s Rock, in the boundary of the 
Somersetshire coal basin. It was in the possession of Mr, Cumber- 
land. 
Encrinites and trochites occur in astonishing abundance in all the 
rocks of this class in South Britain. Dr. Fleming has mentioned 
them in Linlithgowshire. 
_A great variety of madreporites is commonly seen, 
Tubiporites are mentioned by Mr. Townsend. 
Pectinites are often found in the rocks near Bristol. 
The trilobite is well known in the lime-stone rocks at Dudley, in 
Staffordshire. 
Ammonites occur, though more rarely, in the lime-stone of the 
coal formation, They are mentioned by Mr. Aikin in the coal-field 
of Shropshire, 
Terebratulites are found very commonly in all the lime-stones of 
the coal formation. 
I might enlarge this catalogue to a much greater extent; but 
what I have said will suffice to show that there is a general con- 
formity between the animal remains found in the transition lime- 
stone and the lime-stones of the coal-fields. Hence it appears that 
at the periods when these two formations were deposited, the ocean 
was filled with organized beings of the same description. The 
astonishing abundance of these relics in the rocks ‘of both orders 
testifies the vast profusion of animal life which the sea contained at 
each of the periods in question, 
That the whole of this assemblage of animals became extinct, 
and were afterwards produced anew, and that the ocean in the 
interval was filled with a different set of creatures, which suddenly 
vanished when their predecessors appeared for the second time, can 
scarcely be imagined. It follows, therefore, that the first floetz 
lime-stone of the Wernerian series, to which fossils of a different 
character are assigned, is more recent than the rocks of the inde- 
pendent coal formation. : 
This conclusion is confirmed by considering the situation in which 
