276 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



with Lower Devonian by 53, with Upper Devonian by 6, — being in 

 all 76, a number which future research will augment. 



By a Table which I have constructed, it is shown that 204 species 

 out of 1123 occupy, each in different countries, distinct stages and 

 even systems. If these fossils have been correctly designated, as I 

 believe, we are then in the presence of a purpose of unimaginable 

 duration and extent, embracing nearly three-fourths of the sedi- 

 mentary rocks of the earth. By entering and pervading the success- 

 ive horizons from the Lingula-flags to the Carboniferous limestone, 

 these recurrent fossils teach us how intimate, amid endless litho- 

 logical mutation, are the mutual affinities of the palaeozoic periods, 

 and that the organic life of those times was intended to manifest the 

 same benevolent infinity of resource which now lavishes a beauteous 

 and boundless variety upon our earth. 



In studying the European Devonian Becurrents at long intervals, 

 or from system to system, we find that the nearest stages are the 

 most closely allied by their faunae. Tracing now the life-relations 

 of the different stages, we perceive that the Upper Silurian stage is 

 connected with the Lower Devonian by 72 fossils exclusively their 

 own, while the Lower Silurian is only united to the Lower De- 

 vonian stage by 19 fossils, only found in those stages. Nine fossils 

 form a somewhat feeble bond of union between Upper Silurian and 

 Upper Devonian; but Lower Devonian sends 49 fossils into Carbonife- 

 rous strata. The most remote stages are the least connected. The 

 Lower Silurian and Upper Devonian have only one common form, 

 the Favosites fibrosa, an inhabitant also of the Onondaga Limestone 

 (Devonian) of New York. These facts remind us of the gradual 

 weedings observed in the fossils of the Tertiary rocks as we proceed 

 from below upwards. 



With respect to individual orders and genera. The recurrent Zoo- 

 phyta of Europe are very numerous, being 35 out of Q2, contrary to 

 expectation from their habits in New York, from the simplicity of 

 their essential parts, and from their being sedentary. Syringopora 

 ramulosa is Silurian at Limbourg, and Carboniferous at Vise, Moscow, 

 and Valdai ; Gorgonia ripisteria is found in each of the systems — 

 Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous. Only 8 Devonian Bryozoa 

 are recurrent ; but the range of these is extensive. Fenestella an- 

 tiqua occupies three stages. So restricted in New York is the range 

 of the Silurian Crinoids, that we may be surprised to find 12 here 

 out of 60 in various horizons. One species of the genus Bhodocri- 

 nites is met with in all the three systems, but not in Permian. Of 

 the 61 Brachiopoda recurrent and Devonian in M. DeYemeuil's Table, 

 the species of only 3 genera are in any considerable number, — namely, 

 11 Orthides recurrent out of 48, 18 Spiriferi out of 57, and 21 

 Terebratulce out of 54. Only one European Orthis (an early genus) 

 reaches the Carboniferous period ; but the other two genera do so 

 plentifully from very early times. The Leptcena memhranacea — of 

 New York, South Africa (Sharpe), and Europe — frequents the three 

 middle systems in Europe, together with Chonetes sarcinulata. Only 

 one Bellerophon (B. elegans, Lower Devonian) attains to the Coal- 



