JJpfield Green — The Cornuh Beds and the Gedinnian. 403 



is very improbable. It seems to me that the beds of Culm represent 

 the total result of the attempt to form coal, and nothing more is to 

 be hoped for. The views expressed in this paper are the result 

 of a profound belief in the value of certain Carboniferous fossils as 

 zonal indices, based on careful observation in the Midlands. The 

 zones are not quite so well defined as those which obtain in older 

 and newer formations, a result probably due to conditions of deposit, 

 but nevertheless I find these life zones to be of economic importance 

 to the mining engineer. 



A paper in the Geological Magazine for June by Dr. J. H. 

 Parkinson, pp. 272-276, on "The Zoning of the Culm in South 

 Germany," is of interest, because from an examination of the fauna 

 of the Culm of Konigsberg he arrives at the conclusion that this 

 Culm with a Vise Limestone fauna lies above the Posidonomya shales 

 of Herborn. 



This is very improbable. The Herborn fauna is identical with 

 ithat which is found in the Pendleside series of England, which is 

 definitely known to succeed beds with a Vise limestone or a Productus 

 giganteus fauna. At Vise also shales with P. Pecheri succeed the Vise 

 Limestone, and lastly the Tournai Limestone, to which Dr. Parkinson 

 refers the Posidonomya beds of Herborn, does not contain the fauna 

 characteristic of the Lower Culm, but has an altogether difi'erent 

 assemblage of fossils. Judging from the fauna of Konigsberg Culm, 

 I think he is quite correct in referring the beds to the Vise horizon, 

 but beyond that I beg to join issue with his conclusions. 



Through the kindness of Dr. H. Woodward I have been favoured 

 with the precis of Mr. Newell Arber's paper on " The Fossil Flora 

 of the Culm Measures of North-West Devon," read before the Royal 

 Society on June 9th. This paper conclusively proves from the 

 evidence of the flora that " the horizon in the Upper Carboniferous 

 represented by that portion of the Upper Culm Measures in which 

 the Coal or Culm occurs in the Bideford district is equivalent to the 

 Middle Coal-measures in other British coalfields." That this is so 

 I have also attempted to demonsti'ate by the known presence of 

 Carbonicola acuta at Bideford, and a Gannister or Lower Coal-measure 

 fauna at Instow. 



I greet this work of Mr. Newell Arber with delight, because it 

 tends to prove the subject-matter of this paper from an entirely 

 difi'erent point of view. 



IV. — Note on the Correlation of some Cornish Beds with the 

 Gedinnian of Continental Europe. 



By XJpFiELD Green, F.G.S. 



rpHE group of beds which I propose to identify and correlate with 

 X those known in France, Germany, and Belgium by the name of 

 ^ Gedinnien,' forming the lowest member of the Devonian system, 

 extends in its full development from the Lizard peninsula in the 

 west to Gorran and St. Austell on the east, and thence to near 

 Newquay on the north. The upper beds, at least, may be traced 



