1853.] DAVIDSON FOSSIL BRACHIOPODS FROM CHINA. 353 



sand of the Upper Erratics about Macclesfield and between that and 

 Capesthorn. This point also appears to the eye to be higher than 

 that at which both cease on Alderley Edge. 



In making a traverse from Macclesfield to Buxton, the same ab- 

 sence of erratic deposits was observed on the ascent of the Penine 

 Chain, at about the first mile from Macclesfield ; but at two miles 

 and a half, the road is mended with gravel, containing a profusion of 

 erratic pebbles, derived from an adjoining pit, in which a bed of very 

 coarse gravel is exposed, about 5 feet deep, much rolled, and con- 

 taining numerous fragments of granite. This bed of gravel is situ- 

 ated on the summit-level of the Coal-measures, and at the head of a 

 valley running into the chain from the low grounds on the west. 



From this point to Buxton, over the Millstone grit and Carboni- 

 ferous limestone, I saw no traces of either erratic boulders or gravel ; 

 neither were any observable along the road from Buxton to Leek, 

 until the comparatively low ground, about three miles from Leek, was 

 reached, where Boulder-clay again made its appearance. 



9. 071 some Fossil Brachiopods, of the Devonian Age, from 

 China. By Thomas Davidson, Esq., F.G.S. 



[Pl. XV.] 



So little is knowTi of Chinese fossils that every fresh discovery in- 

 terests the palaeontologist, and more especially when the species are 

 identical with those peculiar to European geological horizons. 



The existence of Devonian beds and fossils in the province of 

 Yuennam, at about one hundred leagues north of Canton, was disco- 

 vered some years ago by M. Itier, and a species of Spirifer and 

 Rhynchonella from that locality have been described and figured by 

 M. de Koninck*. 



My attention was lately called by Messrs. "Waterhouse and Wood- 

 ward to a small collection of Chinese fossils recently presented to the 

 British Museum by Mr. Hanbury, and which I was requested to 

 examine and describe, being informed at the same time by the last- 

 named gentleman, that they were all sent to him from China by 

 W. Lockhart, Esq., of Shanghai. 



For the shells (Spirifers, &c.) he gives the locality of Kwang-si, 

 observing that coal is also met with there : " Kwang-si is quite in the 

 south, and the Chinese name for these fossil shells is ' Shih-eeu.' 



" The fossil crustaceans {Gonoplax incisa, Desmarest) I have re- 

 ceived under the name of ' Shih-hae.' They are said by the Chinese 

 to be from the province of Kwang-si. Cleyer gives Hai-nan as the 

 locality {Specimen Medicince Sinicce, — Medicamenta simplicia, 

 No. 266). 



* " Notice sur deux especes de Brachiopodes du TeiTain Paleozoique de la 

 Chine," Bulletin de rAcaderoie Royale des Sciences, Lettres et Beaux Arts de 

 Belgique, 1846, tome xiii. pt. 2. p. 415. 



