228 Reports and Proceedings. 



The traces of amphibians are like those found in the Keuper Sand- 

 stone, viz., Cladyodon Lloydii, and Labyrinthodont footprints in the 

 Vale of Eden and at Corncockle Moor, printed on damp surfaces, 

 dried in the sun, and afterwards flooded in a way common in salt 

 lakes. Pseudomorphous crystals of salt and gypsum help to this 

 conclusion. 



The molluscous fauna of Lancashire, small in number, in this 

 respect resembles the fauna of the Caspian Sea. The fauna of the 

 Magnesian Limestone of the East of England is more numerous, 

 comprising thirty-five genera and seventy-six species, but wonder- 

 fully restricted when compared with the Carboniferous fauna. The 

 specimens are generally dwarfed in aspect, and in their poverty may 

 be compared to the Caspian fauna of the present day. Some of the 

 fish of the Marl-slate have strong affinities to Carboniferous genera, 

 which may be supposed to have lived in shallow lagoons, bordered 

 by peaty flats ; and the reptiles lately described by Messrs. Howse 

 and Hancock have terrestrial affinities. 



Besides the poorness of the Mollusca, the Magnesian Limestone 

 seems to afford other hints that it was deposited in an inland salt 

 lake subject to evaporation. G-ypsum is common in the interstra- 

 tified marls. In the open sea limestone is only formed by organic 

 agency, for lime, in solution, only exists in small quantities in such 

 a bulk of water ; but in inland salt lakes carbonates of lime and 

 magnesia might have been deposited simultaneously by concentra- 

 tion of solutions due to evaporation. Some of the Magnesian Lime- 

 stone strata have almost a tufaceous or stalagmitio aspect, as if 

 deposited from solution. 



Th^ Cambrian strata also show some evidence of not being true 

 marine deposits. They are purple or red, like the other strata pre- 

 viously spoken of; and the surfaces of the beds sometimes exhibit 

 sun-cracks and rain-pittings. The trilobite Falceopyge Bamsayi is 

 considered by the author to be an accidental marking, simulating 

 the form of a trilobite ; and the fossils of St. David's are found in 

 grey beds, which may mark occasional influxes of the sea, due to 

 oscillations of level. 



Th-e foregoing reasonings, in the author's opinion, lead to the con- 

 clusion that a continental area existed more or less in the northern 

 hemisphere from the close of the Silurian to the end of the Triassic 

 epoch, and that this geographical continuity of land implies probable 

 continuity of continental genera. 



There is therefore no palseontological reason why the Hyper o- 

 dapedon, Telerpeton, and Stagonolepis of the Elgin country should 

 be considered of Triassic age, especially as the beds in which they 

 occur are stratigraphically inseparable from the Old Red Sandstone. 



Finally, terrestrial and marine European epochs were rapidly 

 reviewed. 



1. The Cambrian epoch was probably fresh water. 



2. The Old Eed Sandstone, Carboniferous, Permian, and Trias 

 were ibrmed during one long continental epoch. 



This was brought to an end by partial submergence during the 



