280 Notices of Memoirs — Br. G. Linnarsson — GraptoUte Schists. 



incorrect ideas. In the Catalogue of the Silurian Fossils given by 

 Murchison (Siluria. 4th edition), several of the above-mentioned 

 fossils are included, such as Monogr. lobiferus (^nBechi) and M. Sagit- 

 tarius, Bastrites peregrinus and Diplogr. cometa, but all are placed 

 under the head of the Llandeilo formation. In his description of 

 the Silurian succession in Westrogothia. the author vpas therefore 

 compelled to parallel the Upper Graptolite Schists with a part of 

 Murchison's Llandeilo, though with an intimation that Murchison's 

 arrangement must somehow have been erroneous, in thus assigning 

 them a systematic position inferior to the Chasmops Limestone and 

 Trinucleus Schist, which of all Swedish beds most nearly resemble 

 the Caradoc, and actually underlie these Upper Graptolite Schists. 

 In the list of British Graptolites given by Nicholson in his Mono- 

 graph^ he includes many of the Graptolites of the Lobiferus Schist, 

 The majority, such as M. lobiferus and Sagittarius, Bas. peregrinus 

 and Diplogr. tamariscus, are said to occur both in the Upper Llandeilo 

 and in the Caradoc. Diplo. cometa is given from the Upper Llandeilo 

 only. To judge from this, the Lobiferus Schist ought best to be 

 compared with the transition beds between the Llandeilo and 

 Caradoc. Even this, however, conflicts with the above-mentioned 

 fact that the Lobiferus Schist reposes upon strata, the fauna of 

 which most nearly corresponds to that of the Caradoc. 



For the first time, through Lapworth's accurate researches in the 

 South of Scotland, has the Graptolite-bearing series in Great Britain 

 been developed in a satisfactory manner. He divides the richly 

 graptolitic Moffat group into three parts — the Lower or Glenkiln 

 Shales, the Middle or Hartfell Shales, and the Upper or Birkhill Shales 

 — of the fossils of which he gives a catalogue,^ According to this, 

 we find that the Upper Moffat (Birkhill Shales) completely parallel- 

 izes with the Lobiferus Schist. Nearly all the Graptolites we find at 

 Kongslena are found in the Upper Moffat, and none of them are 

 mentioned from either of the underlying divisions. The Middle 

 Moffat, again, is the equivalent in time of the Schists with Dicrano- 

 graptus Clingani and Diplogr. foliacens, which occur in Scania, as 

 at Fogelsang, Josterup, and Jerrestad. This close concordance with 

 the Swedish succession shows that we may, without doubt, look 

 upon Lapworth's classification of the Scottish series as being 

 correct. As regards the systematic relations of the Scottish rocks 

 to the typical English series again, Lapworth holds totally different 

 views from those of preceding authors. In the Moffat group, for 

 example (which Murchison and Nicholson — the latter at least in 

 1872 — regard wholly as Llandeilo), Lapworth considers that the 

 Lower Moffat only belongs to the Llandeilo, the Middle Moffat to 

 the Caradoc ; while of the Upper Moffat it is said that it " seems 

 to belong almost wholly to the Lower Llandovery." This last- 

 mentioned comparison at least does not conflict with the Swedish 

 relations. That is to say, in several of the rock divisions, which 



1 A Monograph of the British Graptolitida, Edin. & Lond. 1872, p. 97, et seq. 

 ^ A Catalogue of the "Western Scottish fossils, Glasgow, 1876, p. 97, et seq. 



