Notes on Fossils from the Falkland Islands. 249 



were transferred to the British Museum, Cromwell Koad, 

 South Kensington, where, by the courtesy of the officers, I 

 have had the opportunity of examining them. 



Although satisfied as to the Palaiozoic age of these fossils, 

 Morris and Sharpe would not refer them to any definite 

 formation. They say: "Thus we cannot attempt to place 

 the beds in the Falkland Islands, which have supplied these 

 specimens, on the level of any particular portion of the 

 European scale of formations, but must be contented with 

 saying that they belong to a part of the Palaeozoic series of 

 which the position is still undetermined." 



It is interesting to find that a few years after the publica- 

 tion of Darwin's discovery, Andrew Geddes Bain^ read a 

 paper (1852) before the Geological Society " On the Geology 

 of South Africa," which was followed by descriptions of 

 Palaeozoic lossils by Daniel Sharpe and J. W. Salter,^ amoug 

 them being many Brachiopods, which were referred to 

 species previously described from the Falkland Islands. 

 These Brachiopods, together with the Trilobites and other 

 fossils accompanying them, were referred without doubt to 

 the Devonian period. 



The Falkland Islands were visited by H.M.S. "Challenger" 

 during her memorable voyage, and Sir Wyville Thomson,^ in 

 his book, says that while they were at Port Stanley Mr 

 Museley went across to Port Sussex to examine a supposed 

 deposit of coal, and " brought back a fine lot of fossils from 

 the sandstone, the beds and their contents having very much 

 the appearance of the ferruginous sandstones of May Hill or 

 Girvan. The species of Orthis, Atrypa, and Spirifer are 

 different; and as there are no graptolites in the schists, it is 

 probable that the whole series belongs to a somewhat later 

 period — possibly the base of the Devonians." 



The fossils from the Falkland Islands brought home by 

 the " Challenger " were submitted to Mr K. Etheridge, jun., 

 and an account of them is given in the narrative of the cruise.* 



1 Trans. Geol. Soc, vol. vii., 1856, p. 175. 



2 Loc. cit., p. 203. 



^' The Atlantic, vol. ii. p. 208, 1877. 



■* Narrative of the Cruise of the Challenger, 1885, vol. i. part ii. p. 892. 



