Brodie — On Fossil Insects. 285 



island." It will be found, by turning over the Reports of tlie Brit. 

 Assoc, the Trans. Eoy. G-eol. Soc. of Cornwall, and the "Geologist," 

 that my "valuable data" have not been "long buried." Will Mr. 

 Salter be so good as to say what is the evidence that " near Teign- 

 mouth we have the Upper Devonian beds ?" I have no doubt that 

 his reply will be that pebbles containing Clymenice are abundant in the 

 Triassio Conglomerate at Shaldon, near Teignmouth, and that the 

 Upper or Clymenia limestone must have existed close by. This, 

 however, if admissible, would be evidence of not what is, but what 

 was. But is it admissible ? The Clymenia are found only in well- 

 rounded pebbles, which have clearly travelled long — ^perhaps far; 

 whilst the ordinary materials are but sub-angular, and are of imme- 

 diate derivation. The Chesil beach at Portland contains, it is said, 

 pebbles from the Torbay limestones. They must have travelled at 

 least thirty-five miles, more likely double that distance, since, in all 

 probability, they followed the sinuosities of the coast ; a fact which 

 suggests caution in drawing inferences from pebbles respecting the 

 whereabouts of their parents. — I am, etc. Wm. Pengellt. 



Torquay, Mat/ 2, 1867. 



FOSSIL INSECTS IN THE CARBONIFEROUS ROCKS. 



To the Editor of the Geological Magazine. 



Deab Sir, — I see in the March number of the Geological 

 Magazine that you mention the occurrence of the "Xylohius Sigil- 

 laricel" in the Upper Coal Measures at Kilmaurs, in Scotland ; and 

 in the same number Mr. Binney records the discovery of the same 

 myriapod in the Lower Coal Measures near Huddersfield, and also 

 the remains of a supposed Coleopterous insect. Now as the German 

 and Belgian Carboniferous formations, especially the latter, and the 

 American Coal fields have yielded in places numerous insects, and 

 our own occasionally, I have very little doubt that a more careful 

 search would largely increase the number; and I hope the many 

 zealous collectors in om* Coal-districts will keep a sharp look-out for 

 any Annulosa which they may fairly expect to find associated with 

 the plants in the shales and ironstones, especially in the latter, 

 where they usually occur. The fijie Curculionideous beetle in iron- 

 stone from Coalbroke Dale, and the scorpion from Cholme in Bohemia, 

 long since figured and described by Buckland in the Bridgewater 

 Treatise, are well known. There is also a fine wing of a " Corydalis " 

 in the British Museum, from the same locality, figured and referred 

 to in Murchison's " Siluria." I have in my collection a wing of a 

 gigantic Neuropterous insect, in ironstone from the Derbyshire 

 Coal Measures. Professor Dana, in the " American Journal of 

 Science " (vol. xxxvii. January, 1864), describes and figures a re- 

 markable fossil insect nearl}'- entire, wkich he states to be like the 

 Semhlids among the Neuropters, and especially the Chaidiodes, and a 

 mutilated wing of another Neuropter, which approximates to the 

 genus Hemerohius. Both these specimens were discovered by Mr. J. 

 G. Brouson in the Carbonifei'ous beds at Morris, Illinois, Sir 



