232 Correspondence. 



PISH IN THE OLD RED SANDSTONE. 

 To the Editor of the Geological Magazine. 



Sir. — Mr. Pengelly's answer is clear and definite. Sucli good 

 authorities on fish remains give one the strongest reason to believe 

 that this Upper Old Eed fish really does occur in what we Relieve to 

 be Lower Devonian. 



On the Irishman's principle of coming for aid to-day, because he 

 was relieved yesterday, I must ask three or four more questions. 

 First, is it sure that the locality, Meadsfoot Bay, is the same age as 

 the [Meadsfoot Sands, which are certainly Lower Devonian, by their 

 fossils. The country is awfully faulted ; and as the Barnstaple beds 

 (=Upper Old Ked, as I have proved by their fossils) are everywhere 

 likely to be unconformable, on the Middle and Lower beds, I think 

 it is possible we may get patches of it here and there, and should 

 like to know (it is years since I saw Meadsfoot) if the beds can be 

 continuously traced. 



Next, I should like to ask whether Pleurodictyum prohlematicum 

 Goldf., one of the most characteristic of the Lower Devonian corals 

 in S. Devon, and in the Ehine country, really ever does occur in the 

 Barnstaple group, or the Coomhola grits of the south of Ireland? 

 It has been frequently quoted of late years (I believe by Professor 

 Jukes). Will my friend Mr. Baily re-examine his specimens ; and 

 any others who may possess this fossil make sure of it ? 



There is a Bictyophyllia, a Lower Carboniferous coral, allied to 

 Pleurodictyum, common enough at Barnstaple, but not, I think, the 

 same species as the Mountain Limestone fossil. This I have seen 

 from various localities in the Uppermost Devonian. Is it possible 

 that it may have been mistaken for the Pleurodictyum ? 



Again, has any one ever seen, in Mountain Limestone rocks, 

 Stringocephalus, Calceola, Pentamerus, Atrypa, Uncites, StropJialosia, 

 the various species of Acervularia, Cystiphyllum, SmitJiia (or Strept- 

 astrea), Heliolites; the forms of Favosites, allied to F. cristata and 

 F. cervicornis, the Devonian types of Hexacrinus, Sphcerocrmtis, 

 Stylocrinus (Cupressocrinus is rarely found, I know, in Carboniferous 

 Limestone, but is characteristically Devonian for all that), the elon- 

 gated forms of Pentremites, Phacops, Proetus, Harpes, Cyphaspis, 

 Homalonotus, Bronteus, Cheirurus, etc. 



If none, or next to none, of these genera occur in Mountain Lime- 

 stone localities : if Productus is everywhere common in the last, and 

 absent in the first : and if the corals, crinoids, shells, trilobites, 

 and fish, which characterize the Devonian, are absent in the overlying 

 Carboniferous — and vice versa, what is the use of trying to make the 

 one the equivalent in time of the other ? Yours truly, 



J. W. Saltek. 



P.S. — Since I wrote the above, Mr. Pengelly has brought up his 

 specimens to London. The Phyllolepis from Meadsfoot is indeed like 

 that genus. The fish-defences (Ctenacanthus ?) are equally unquestion- 

 able ; they are from Looe Island. There is nothing like asking ques- 

 tions to get at truth. Here have been some valuable data long buried ; 



