1863.] MURCHISON BAVARIA AND BOHEMIA. 367 



new Austrian map, and we must be content in the meantime with 

 those broad divisions of Lower and Upper Silurian into which M. 

 Barrande divided them, with the possible establishment of a Middle 

 Silurian ; whilst we can certainly affirm that our Lingula-flags, 

 Llandeilo,Caradoc, andWenlock formations are palaeontologically well 

 represented, with a full equivalent in time, by some fossils of the 

 Ludlow rocks. 



The total absence of Devonian rocks in the environs of Prague 

 shows how very different a development of Palaeozoic life took place on 

 this the south-eastern side of the old crystalline rocks from that 

 which occurred at a short distance on their north-western flank, nearer 

 Hof, where, as already noted, the Silurian rocks, though infinitely 

 less rich in fossils and containing no limestones, have still a vast 

 formation of clay-slate and a clear Primordial zone. Prom that 

 horizon, however, upwards, we have a marked difference. Instead 

 of the rich Lower and Upper Silurian, with their numerous lime- 

 stones and abundance of fossils, as seen in Bohemia, the system 

 above the Primordial zone in Bavaria is simply represented by grau- 

 wacke schists with Graptolites, which pass upwards into true Devo- 

 nian rocks with many fossils. The latter again are there surmounted 

 conformably, as previously shown, by Carboniferous limestones with 

 many Producti. There are no Upper Carboniferous strata in that 

 neighbourhood. In Bohemia, on the contrary, with a very full 

 Silurian series, there is no Devonian nor Lower Carboniferous rock, 

 whilst there is an abundant Upper Carboniferous deposit with coal, 

 the sandstones and shales of which rest quite transgressively upon 

 different members of the Silurian system. The differences in the 

 fauna and flora of the Lower and Upper Carboniferous formations, 

 and between which there is such a manifest break throughout 

 Germany and France, have been ably pointed out in Saxony by 

 Dr. Geinitz. 



Our President, Professor Ramsay, in his recent Anniversary Ad- 

 dress, opened out a highly interesting and important inquiry, and has 

 clearly shown that in Britain there have been ten breaks or disloca- 

 tions in the older Palaeozoic times. Let this inquiry be followed in 

 other countries. Prom my experience I am led to believe that the 

 breaks he has enumerated as common to Britain are essentially local, 

 and are rarely to be paralleled even in the adjacent continent of 

 Europe, where the solutions of continuity are often of very different 

 age from those common to our land. 



Thus, I have long known that the great disseverance between 

 Lower and Upper Carboniferous, so strongly marked all over Ger- 

 many and Prance, has apparently no existence in Britain, whilst, as 

 shown in the preceding consecutive section of M. Giimbel, there still 

 exists in Bavaria an unbroken and conformable ascending order, 

 from the older stratified rocks, through the Silurian and Devonian, 

 up into the Lower Carboniferous — a striking contrast to the Silurian 

 derangements in Wales, as cited by Professor Ramsay. 



In the endeavour to grapple with such great questions as the 

 amount of time which may have occurred whilst the breaks and 



