Geological Society of London. 39 



X. JlouauUi (Salter), and L. JIawlcei (Kouault). The species regarded 

 Ly the author as undoubtedly Devonian {i. e. cither previously 

 described from Devonian deposits or associated with such species iu 

 the same jiebble) are twelve in number, namely : — Spirifcr Verneiiilii 

 (Murch), S. macroptera (Goldt\),Athuris Bndleighensis (sp. n.), Atrypa 

 (reticularis?), Wiijnchonella inaurita (Sandb.), It. elliptica (Schnurr), 

 li. Vicaryi (sp. n.), and two undetermined species of Jthjnchonella, 

 Streptorltynclius crenistria (riiil.), Prodiictus Vicaryi (Salt.), and an 

 undetermined Chonetes. Eight species occurring in the same rock, 

 three of which have been doubtfully identified, are considered by the 

 author to be probably Devonian. The species supposed to be deter- 

 mined are : — Orilds reclux (Barr.) and 0. ISerthosi (liouault), Silurian ; 

 and Spirifer octopUcatus (Sow.), Devonian and Carboniferous, but 

 possibly identical with the Silurian S. elevatus (Dalm.). The others 

 are two new species of Orthis, and a new Ithynchonella (?), and an 

 undetermined species of Terehratida (?) and Stropliomena (?). Finally 

 the author noticed fourteen species (all new, except Orthis pulvinata, 

 Salt.) only known from these pebbles, but which were stated to 

 possess a Devonian facics. 



Discussion. — Mr. Etheridge agreed with. Mr. Davidson as to his determination of 

 the species. He had, however, examined the extensive collection of Mr. Vicary, and, 

 from their general fades, he was inclined to assign them to the IMiddle Devonian 

 and Carhoniferous beds. The attribution of the fossils to Upper Llandovery beds 

 was founded on the presence of Lingula crumena ; but he thought he could give some 

 clue to the locality from which the pebbles had been derived. It had first, from the 

 lithological character of the pebbles as well as from the fossils, been thought that 

 they were of Lower Caradoc age. He himself assigned the position of the rocks from 

 which the pebbles bad been derived to the Hangman group of North Devon. At 

 Anstey Cove Mr. Tawney had found a series of the same class of fossils in a matrix 

 exactly like that of the pebbles. He had examined the spot, and there recognised an 

 extension of the sandstones of North Devon (the Hangman Grits) on the South coast, 

 and certainly, so far as lithological character is concerned, the rocks are the same as 

 the pebbles. It did not, bowever, follow that the pebbles came from that particular 

 district, but probably from the denudation of the large tract of country of 

 Devonian age to the North. There are, however, Silurian species in the pebbles, and 

 these he would refer to the denudation of rocks in an area mainly to the South 

 of what is now the Devon coast. The fauna at Budleigh Salterton is essentially 

 British, and not French, thougb some few species are common to both areas. The 

 bivalves, indeed, were hardly known in France. On the whole, he concluded that the 

 .fossils in the pebbles were Devonian, with a slight admixture of Silurian and probably 

 Carboniferous forms, derived from rocks at no great distance from the spot where the 

 pebbles are found. 



Prof. Ramsay pointed out that in conglomerates it migbt be expected to find 

 pebbles of rocks of various ages. He commented on the difficulty paleontologists 

 seemed to labour under in determining a fossil if it came out of a pebble instead 

 of from a rock, the position of which was definitely known. He adverted to the 

 statement that the beds containing the pebbles had been deposited in the New Red 

 Sandstone sea, whereas Mr. Godwin-Austen had regarded the New Red deposits as 

 formed in large inland lakes ; and the local character of the beds supported this latter 

 view. 



Mr. Prestwich was glad that some other source had been suggested for the 

 ■quartzite pebbles. He had found somewhat similar quartzites between Lisieux and 

 Cherbourg, in France. 



The President observed that he would like to see the rise of a new race of palaeon- 

 tologists, relying simply on zoological characteristics, and not on geological position* 

 A considerable reduction in the number of species would undoubtedly result. 



Mr. Etheridge briefly replied. 



