2 PKOCEEDINGa OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [NoV. 9, 



Devonian formations must be drawn below the yellow sandstones. 

 The presence of fishes of 01d-E.ed-Sandstone type in the overlying 

 slates he regarded as furnishing no argument to invalidate this con- 

 clusion. The sandstones of Parry Island and Melville Island are 

 also regarded by the author as belonging to the " Ursa-stage," 

 which, by these additions, presents us with a flora of seventy-seven 

 species of plants. The author remarked upon the singularity of 

 plants of the same species having lived in regions so widely separated 

 as to give them a range of 26|° of latitude, and indicated the rela- 

 tions of such a luxuriant and abundant vegetation in high northern 

 latitudes to necessary changes in climate and in the distribution of 

 land and water. 



DiscxTssioisr. 



Sir Charles Ltell remarked that the Yellow Sandstones of Dura 

 Den in Fife, and of the county of Corli in Ireland, contain Glyp- 

 tolepis and Asterolepis, genera of fish exclusively Devonian, or be- 

 longing to the middle parts of the Old Hed Sandstone — also the 

 genus Goccosteus, which is abundantly represented in the Middle 

 Old lied Sandstone, and sparingly, or only by one species, in the 

 Carboniferous formation. The evidence derived from these fishes 

 inclined him to the belief that the Yellow Sandstone, whether in 

 Ireland or Fife, should be referred to the Upper Devonian, and not 

 to the Lower Carboniferous, as Sir Eichard Grifiiths contended, and 

 as Heer now thinks. 



As to the argument founded on the plants, he considered it an 

 important and truly wonderful announcement, that many well- 

 known Carboniferous species are common to Bear Island (in lat. 74° 

 30' iST.), in the Arctic regions, and to Ireland and other parts of 

 Europe (26° of latitude further south). But fossil plants are supposed 

 to have a wider range in space and time than fossil fish ; and we know 

 that the cryptogamic flora of the ancient coal is remarkable for the 

 wide horizontal spread of the same species, extending from E'orth 

 America to Europe, so that we need not be surprised if many 

 species should extend vertically from the Devonian into the Carbo- 

 niferous strata. 



Mr. Caekttthees remarked on the bearing of the paper on the 

 Kiltorkan beds, and considered that Dr. Heer had completely esta- 

 blished the correlation of the deposits. He diflered, however, as to 

 the numerical proportions of the species. He could not recognize 

 Cyclostigma as a genus, but considered it founded on insufficient 

 grounds, in which view Prof. Haughton now agreed. It was, in 

 fact, founded on fragments of the bark of Lepidodendron Griffithsii, 

 Brongniart, to which species the Lepidodendron indicated by Prof. 

 Heer as L. Veltlieimianum reaUy belonged. Other detached por- 

 tions of this same plant had been described by various authors 

 under no less than seven different speciflc names, and referred to 

 nearly an equal number of distinct genera ; and Prof. Heer had 

 reckoned these as species in his comparison of the Bear-Island and 



