4 C. Lapworth — Life of Dr. J. G. Linnarsson. 



intensity, and he was driven to the shelter of his brother's home at 

 Skofde. It is doubtful if he had any presentiment of the fatal 

 nature of this last attack ; for a week before his death he writes to 

 his old friends and companions on the Survey in Stockholm as 

 bright and hopefully as ever. Then all is silence ; and the news of 

 his death burst like a thunderclap upon the ears of the many who 

 knew him and loved him. 



In the death of Linnarsson both Geology and Palasontology suffer 

 a gigantic, and indeed an almost irreparable loss. In his familiarity 

 with the order of succession, and the characteristic fossils of the 

 Lower Palfeozoio formations of Sweden, he stood far above all his 

 contemporaries. We shall best understand the order and magnitude 

 of his labours, if we regard him as what he really was, namely, the 

 natural successor of Angelin. Like Angelin, his first palaeontological 

 work was performed among the Trilobita ; and, like Angelin also, he 

 founded the proposed stratigraphical divisions of the strata he 

 studied, essentially upon palaeontological considerations. But 

 Angelin's Geologiml work sinks almost into insignificance when 

 placed side by side Avith that of Linnarsson. Angelin was a devoted 

 student of palgeontology, and the collections of fossils at his disposal 

 were so rich that their study absorbed the whole of his time, and he 

 had but little leisure to devote to the examination of the various 

 horizons of his fossils. Hence, vast as was his knowledge of the fossil 

 forms of Sweden, he distinctly failed in developing a reliable general 

 classification of the strata containing them. " It was reserved for 

 Linnarsson to unravel the entire Lower Palasozoic succession of 

 Southern Sweden " from the basal beds of the Cambrian to the unplaced 

 sandstones at the summit of the Silurian, "and to magnificently 

 extend, develope and correct what had already been worked out by 

 Angelin himself." Angelin's classification of the transition strata 

 was a mere outline, founded upon tbe local characteristics of the 

 successive formations as shown by their Trilobitic faunas ; and con- 

 sisted of the following Eegions in supposed descending order : — 



4. B.C. Eegio Ceratopygarum. 



3. B. ,, Conocorypliarum. 



^. A. ,, Olenorum. 



1. ,, Fucoidarum. 



8. E. Eegio Crj^tonomyorum. 

 7. D.E. ,, Harparum. 

 6. D. ,, Trinucleorum. 

 5. C. ,, Asaplioruin. 



Eegion 1 included the basal non-fossiliferous strata of Sweden ; 

 regions 2 and 3 embraced the equivalents of the Primordial zone of 

 Barrande ; regions 4, 5, and 6 belonged to Murchison's Lower 

 Silurian system ; and regions 7 and 8 represented his Upper Silurian. 



At Angelin's death, geologists had but a vague idea even of the 

 broader features and probable limits of these palasontological regions ; 

 nor was their author himself by any means certain of the position 

 of some of them in the order of succession. At the present day, 

 however, it may be asserted with truth, that the Lower Palasozoic 

 succession in Sweden is better known to geologists in Europe than 

 that of Wales itself. The grander foi-mations which compose it 

 have all been recognized and named; while a host of subordinate 

 zones and horizons have been discovered. By all earnest students 



