358 



THE POPULAB EDUCATOR. 



orders of fish may yet be brought to light. And so they may ; 

 yet it is hardly likely that among the numerous organic remains 

 which have been unrocked, we should not have hit upon some 

 ichthyolite had any been there. As yet, facts are against the 

 supposition that the higher orders of life are mere developments 

 from those which belong to inferior types. Here, when fish 

 first appear, we have a highly-developed genus, indicating a 

 separate creation. 



The lower Ludlow contains many large-chambered shells, 

 such as the Phragmoceras ventrioosum, and a shell of the same 

 kind but straight, the Orthocerax Ludense (Fig. 49). These 

 two last fossils are peculiar, and therefore characteristic of the 

 lower Ludlow shales. 



The Aymestry Limestone is somewhat argillaceous and semi- 

 crystalline ; it is celebrated by the enormous quantity of the 

 Pentamerus Knightii (Fig. 50), a brachiopod, each chamber of 

 which is divided by a septum, or wall of division, into five cells, 

 hence its name. Lingula Lewisii, Rhynchonella Wilsoni, and 

 Atrypa reticularis are three other abundant aad noted fossils, 

 which are drawn in Figs. 51, 52, and 53. 



The Upper Ludlow Series consists of grey argillaceous sand- 

 atones containing calcareous nodules, which sometimes become 

 shaley, and in the upper parts of the series show the red tint so 

 characteristic of the overlying Devonians. The most interesting 

 feature they exhibit is a bone-bed. Here we have indications 

 that we are approaching the great fish era, when the piscine 

 life reached its maximum. We shall find in the Devonian period 

 the waters were alive with fish of every form and character 

 wonderful creations ! In this, the uppermost strata of the 

 Silurians, we find premonitory symptoms of the coming profu- 

 sion of fish life. Near the town of Ludlow, Sir E. Murchison 

 observed a brown layer, which can be traced forty-five miles. 

 It varies from one inch to a foot thick, and is absolutely com- 

 posed of fish remains. Many of the bones, spines, and scales 

 of these palaeozoic fish are well preserved ; but the great mass 

 of the fossils bear evidence of the action of the water, being 

 more or less rounded. We may suppose that the remains 

 of the fish were swept by the marine currents, and deposited in 

 some place where the water was undisturbed. This is no far- 

 stretched supposition. The reader will remember we cited an 

 instance where, in dredging, an area found, which was evidently 

 the cemetery of the fish, remains now in process of deposition off 

 the coast of Yorkshire. 



The Downton Sandstone, which was classed with the old red 

 sandstone by Sir E. Murchison under the name of " Tilestonea," 

 is the last member of the Silurian group. Its fossils have a 

 Silurian likeness ; hence the reason of its present classification. 



We shall now give a list of the most common of the Silurian 

 fossils. Those which did not outlive the period in which they 

 are named are printed in italics. 



For the localities where the various formations occur, the 

 student is referred to any of the perfect geological maps based 

 upon an accurate geological survey of this kingdom. Any 

 attempt at defining the exact position of the formations would 

 only be a useless expenditure of our limited space ; and for a 

 complete list of British fossils, Professor Morris's catalogue will 

 be found invaluable. If the name of a strata be enclosed in 

 brackets immediately after a fossil, it should be understood that 

 that fossil is particularly characteristic of that strata. 



LOWER SILURIAN FOSSILS. 



Plants. Fucoids, Chonclrites, Palaaochorda. 



Corals. ChiBtetes, Favosites, Haly sites, Heliobites, Nebulipora. 



Zoophyta. Petraia subduplicata ; Stenopora fibrosa; Nidulites Stre- 



phodes, Pyritonema. 



Hydrozoa. Graptolitus ; Didymograpsus : Diplograpsus. 

 Bryozoa. Oldhamia (Cambrians), Eetepora. 

 Brachiopoda. Atrypa; Discina Lingula, Pentamerus, Khynconella, 



Strophomena, Trematis, Orthis, Orthisina. 

 Conchifera. Ambonychia Area, Conocardium, Cypricardia Modiola, 



Nucula, Mytilus. 

 Gasteropoda. Capulus, Euomphalus, Holopea, Maclurea, Turbo Trochus, 



Turritella, Murchisonia Pleurotomaria. 

 Pteropoda. Conularia, Bellerophon Theca, PterotJieca. 

 Cephalopoda. Actinoceras, Lituites, Orthoceras, Phragmoceras. 

 EclunoAertnata. Ar/elacrinites Caryocystitcs, Echinospherites Khodo- 



crinus. 



Annelida. Arenieola, Lumbricaria, Nereites, Serpulite, Tentacnlites. 

 Crustacea. Acidaspis, Amphwn, Ampyx, Asaphus, Calymene, Homalo- 



notus, Ogygia, Phacops, Trinucleus, Agnostus, Illsenus, Kerno- 



plourides. 



UPPER SILURIAN FOSSILS. 



Plants. Chondrites antiquus. 



Zoophyta. Acervularia, Alveolites, Araclmophyllum, C&nites, Cysti. 

 phyllum, Palffiocyclus Thecia, Petraia bina, Heliobites. 



Bryozoa. Festenella, Cellepora, D:scopora. 



.BracTuopoda. Obolus, Spirifer, Atbysis, Chonetes, Pentamerus oblongus 

 (Upper Lltmdovery), P. Knightii (Aymestry limestone), Leptsena, 

 Strophomena, Orthis Atrypa, Orbicula, Lingula Khynconella. 



Conchifera. Avicula Pterinea, Cardtola, Grammi/sia, Leptodomus, 

 Clidophorus Modiola, Mytilus, Nucula. 



Gasteropoda. Holopella, Natica, Newta, Pleurotomaria, Euomphalus, 

 Turbo, Murchisouia Turritella. 



Pteropoda. Bellerophon, Coruularia. 



CepTialopoda. Actinoceras, Cyrtoceras, Lituites, Orthoceras, Phrag- 

 moceras. 



.EcTuJiodermata. Actinocrinus, ^piocystites, Cyathocrinus, Eucalypto- 

 crinus, Taxocrinus. 



Annelida. Cornulites, Serpulites, Tentaculites, Spirorbis. 



Crustacea. Acidaspis, Amphyx, Calymene, Eucrinurus, Eurypterus, 

 Lichas. 



Fish. Onchus, PZectrodus. 



EEADINGS IN LATIN. VIL 



THE ELEGIAC POETS. 



SEVERAL of the Eoman poets wrote in what is called the Eleg 

 metre, consisting of alternate hexameters and pentameters, br 

 there are some few notably Ovid, Tibullus, and Propertius- 

 whose achievements in this direction stand out far beyond thoa 

 of any other poets who attempted the same metre. Of thes 

 Ovid is undoubtedly worthy of mention first, not only on ac 

 count of the exceeding melodious beauty and clear simplicity 

 of his verse, but also for the surprising quantity of his writings. 

 He is by far the most voluminous of the Eoman poets, and ye 

 he never seems to have exhausted his poetic vein, all his poet 

 being singularly equal throughout. He lived in the early ye 

 of the Eoman empire, a period peculiarly prolific in great poet 

 of whom ho may fairly be reckoned as famous as any; and 

 though chiefly known as a writer of elegiac verse, yet he did 

 not confine himself to that metre, the fifteen books of " Met 

 morphoses," in which he clothed in a poetio dress many of tl 

 singular legends of the Greek mythology, being a notable 

 ception. After living some years at Eome in familiar inter 

 course with the chief literary men of the day, and in tt 

 enjoyment of the patronage of the emperor, he was suddenlj 

 banished, for some reason that has never been divulged, 

 Tomi, a wild, uncivilised place on the shores of the Adriatic 

 His lament on leaving the city where he had lived so long anc 

 gained so great a name is one of his most beautiful productions 

 and we give a portion of it below among our present extracts. 

 Fortunately for posterity, his dreary banishment did not stoj 

 his literary career, and many of his most beautiful poems were 

 given to the world from his place of exile, where he died in the 

 year A.D. 18. The works of Ovid are always considered the 

 very best model for elegiac verse-writing, every one of the laws 

 which govern that rhythm being studiously obeyed, with 

 remarkable absence of any appearance of constraint. The 

 grammatical constructions are remarkably simple and straight 

 forward, and for the most part there is very little difficult 

 either in apprehending the meaning or appreciating the beaut 

 of his poems. The great German historian Niebuhr remarks 

 of Ovid : " No one can have had a greater talent or a greater 

 facility for writing poetry than Ovid had. In this respect he 

 may rank among the greatest poets. This is the kind of poetry 

 in which every one feels at home, and as if the sentiments 

 could not be expressed in any other way. Horace is much 

 inferior to Ovid in this respect ; there are only a few among 

 his lyric poems of which we can say that they were composed 

 with ease and facility." 



Of the subject of our first extract we have already spoken ; 

 it is the account of his leaving Eome : 



OVID. "TRISTIA," I. in. 1 34. 

 Cum subit illius tristissima noctis imago, 



Quae mihi supremum tempus in urbe f uit ; 

 Cum repeto noctem, qua tot mihi cara reliqui, 



Labitur ex oculis nunc quoque gutta meis. 

 Jam prope lux aderat, qua me discedere Caesar 



Finibus extremes jusserat Ausonias. 

 Nee mens, nee spatium fuerat satis apta paranti 



Torpuerant longa pectora nostra mora. 



