152 PKOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 13, 



siosauria, and perhaps Ichthyosauria ; of Amphibia, a great number 

 of Labyrinthodonts, some of which were of enormous size ; of fishes, 

 Ganoids and Elasmobranchs. 



So long as mammals and birds were known to occur no further 

 back than the older Tertiaries, or the middle Mesozoic rocks, it might 

 be legitimate to imagine that they came into existence somewhere 

 between that time and the end of the Palaeozoic series. But now that 

 both are to be traced back to the Trias, that it is known that the Cro- 

 codilian and Lacertian types of reptiles were then in existence, and 

 that the Amphibia were elaborately represented, I confess it is as 

 possible for me to believe in the direct creation of each separate form 

 as to adopt the supposition that mammals, birds, and reptiles had no 

 existence before the Triassic epoch. Conceive that Austraha was 

 peopled by kangaroos and emus springing up ready-made from her 

 soil, and you will have performed a feat of imagination not greater 

 than that requisite for the supposition that the marsupials and great 

 birds of the Trias had no Palaeozoic ancestors belonging to the same 

 classes as themselves. The course of the world's history before the 

 Trias must have been strangely different from that which it has 

 taken since, if some of us do not live to see the fossil remains of a 

 Silurian mammal. 



DiscirssioN, see p. 157. 



2. On the Sij-ccession- of Beds in the '' New Red " on the Sotjth Coast 

 of Devojst, and on the Locality of a JSTew Specimen of Hypero- 

 DAPEDOjsr. By William Whitae:er, B.A. (Lond.), F.G.S., of the 

 Geological Survey of England. 



The following account of the successive beds that are shown in 

 the " New Red " cliffs of South Devon, is from notes taken during a 

 holiday-walk along that coast last September, and it has been drawn 

 up at the request of Prof. Huxley, in order to mark the strati- 

 graphical place of the Hyperodapedon jaw from near Budleigh 

 Salterton. 



I believe that the only paper which treats of the order of these 

 beds is a full report of two lectures by Mr. Pengelly, P.R.S.* To 

 this I refer the reader for a more detailed account of the composi- 

 tion of the various " red rocks." 



Owing to the dip, lower and lower beds rise to the surface south- 

 westward, so that an almost continuous section is given. 



The occurrence of the uppermost part of the '' New Red " near the 

 eastern boundary of the county, and its passage upwards into the 

 Lias, have been noticed by Sir H. De la Beche f, a^id more fully by 

 Mr. Pengelly % ; but the cliffs here are so much hidden by fallen 



* Trans. Plymouth Inst, for 1862-63 and for 1864-65. 



t Trans. G-eol. Soc. Ser, 2, vol. i. p. 42, and Plate 8 (1822). Eeport on the 

 Geology of Cornwall, Devon &c. p. 209 (1839). 

 \ Trans. Plymouth Inst, for 1864-65, pp. 33-36. 



