534 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [May 30, 



Mr. Godwin-Austen pointed out that in palaeozoic times there 

 existed a main north and south ridge, traversing what is now Western 

 Europe, and extending from Scandinavia to North Africa. To the 

 westward of tliis old range there was another tract, also running 

 north and south, even then bounded to the west by the Atlantic 

 valley, and now traceable in the northern and western portions of 

 the British Isles. 



From very early times there was an increase of land from the 

 western or Atlantic tract towards the present European area by the 

 successive elevation of the palaeozoic sea- beds. This took place along 

 E. and W. lines, one of which became the axis of an elevation which 

 is distinctly traceable through a long series of geological changes. 



In bringing forward the evidences of these palaeogeographical con- 

 ditions of Western Europe, and in treating more especially of the E. 

 and W. ridge above alluded to, the author first remarked that he 

 regarded the absence, in France, of the Upper Silurian series as 

 having been caused by an E. and W. barrier, cutting off the com- 

 munication with the Upper Silurian zoological group of Shropshire 

 and Scandinavia, and constituting a division between two hydro- 

 graphical areas, — in the northern of which the true Upper Silurian 

 fauna had its development, — and in the other, what the author 

 regards as its southern equivalent, namely the Rhenane and Devonian 

 group ; and he showed that there was evidence of this barrier in the 

 shingle-beds of the Lower Silurian both in northern France and in 

 Cornwall, which point to a neighbouring E. and W. coast-line ; in 

 the half arch of cleavage of the chlorite schists of the Prawle, proving 

 the existence of an elevated E. and W. range of old rocks, now locally 

 destroyed, and replaced by the English Channel ; and in the occur- 

 rence of an elevatory axis, ranging east and west along the southern 

 shores of Devonshire, which has been proved from independent 

 reasonings. 



In the unconformity of the Old Red Sandstone and the Culm- 

 series of the west of England, one with the other, and both with the 

 Silurian and older rocks, the author observes relations which always 

 exist towards the original limits of formations, and finds clear indica- 

 tions of a neighbouring old coast-line, and of land which has long 

 disappeared. The author refers much of the Old Red series to a 

 lacustrine origin (as suggested by Dr. Fleming and Dr. Mantell), in 

 connexion with the western or Atlantic land- area. It indicates an 

 abundant vegetation on a considerable extent of land-surface of this 

 period ; as is also seen in deposits of rather earlier date in the Bou- 

 lonnais. The conglomerate character of the Old Red series appears 

 not to pass the old east and west ridge. The author, however, does 

 not lay much stress on the relations of the Old Red Sandstone, 

 which he is inclined to regard, not as a separate formation, but as a 

 perhaps contemporaneous equivalent of the Marwood series. 



Passing over the disposition of the Mountain Limestone forma- 

 tion, the author proceeds to consider the relation of the Coal-beds to 

 this old east and west ridge. He traces this old ridge of crystalline 

 rocks, whether bare or overlaid by secondary and tertiary deposits. 



