King 8^ Lewis — U. Silurian and Old Red in S. Staffs. 437 



stocks ^ from area to area, and thus in a given district one stock 

 supplanted another, causing eitlier its extinction or its migration 

 elsewhere. 



Yaughan's work, starting with frankly stratigraphic aims, has 

 given stimulus to purely palasontological work which promises to 

 revolutionize the present knowledge of Palaeozoic Corals. Though 

 good woi'k has been already done, notably by Carruthers,^ the field is 

 too vast for generalizations yet to have been established. But a few 

 points in fossil Coral work seem to become increasingly clear. 

 (1) The lack of knowledge as to what characters are directly the 

 result of environment and what directly due to heredity. (2) Our 

 ignorance of the bionomic significance of Coral skeletal structures. 

 (3) The independent acquisition of similar structures in Corals of 

 presumably different ancestry (e.g. the 'central area' of various 

 unrelated genera formerly grouped as Clisiophyllids). (4) The 

 importance of the earliest stages of the Coral skeleton. Prom these 

 follow (5) the futility of a description and figure of a simple Coral 

 giving a transverse section at one level only ; serial sections (the 

 more the better) are absolutely necessary for descriptive purposes ; 

 and (6) the necessity of the means of cutting any required number of 

 serial sections in studying any species. 



The above results may be thought discouraging, and our ignorance 

 under the old, if artificial, classification, bliss. But advances in 

 knowledge are bound to be superficially destructive, and already 

 some constructive work has been done. It is hoped that some results 

 will shortly be shown in the remaining side of the' zonal exhibit 

 ease. Meanwhile laborious Avork alone can wrest from the Coi'als the 

 story of their evolution. 



III. — The Upfeemost Silueian and Old E,ed Sandstone of South 



Stafpordshihe. 



By W. Wickham King, F.G.S., and W. J. Lewis, B.Sc. 



I!N" the core of the Netherton Anticline at Saltwells, near Dudley, in 

 the vicinity of 'a small area of basalt marked on the Geological 

 Survey maps, Mr. King, in February last, discovered a series of rocks, 

 ranging from the Upper Ludlow Mudstonesto the Old Red Sandstone, 

 cropping out from beneath the base of the Coal-measures of South 

 Staffordshire. During April Mr. Lewis independently recognized 

 Silurian here, and we agreed to work out the details together. 



■^ e.g. the case recorded in " The Lower Carboniferous Succession at 

 Bundoran in South Donegal" in The Geology of Parts of North-Western 

 Ireland, issued by the Geologists' Association for the August excursion, 1912, 

 p. 14. 



- Carruthers, "The Primary Septal Plan of the Eugosa," Ann. Mag. Nat. 

 Hist., ser. Vll, vol. xviii, pp. 356-63, 1906 ; " A Revision of some Carboniferous 

 Corals," Geol. Mag., Dec. V, Vol. V, pp. 20, 68, and 158, 1908; "The 

 Evolution of Zaphrentis delanouei in Lower Carboniferous Times," Quart. 

 Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. Ixvi, pp. 523-38, 1910. Of other authors' publications, 

 the most important is that by Salee, " Le Genre Caninia," Memoire eouronne 

 au Concours interuniversitaire des Sciences minerales de 1910, publie sous les 

 auspices du Ministere des Sciences et des Arts, Bruxelles, 1910. 



