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XXV. — On the Fossils of the Older Deposits in the Rhenish Provinces ; 

 preceded by a general Survey of the Fauna of the Palaeozoic Rocks, and 

 followed by a Tabular List of the Organic Remains of the Devonian System 

 in Europe. 



By the Viscount D'ARCHIAC and M. EDOUARD DE VERNEUIL, 



Members of the Geological Society of France, &c. 



[Read December 15, 1841.] 



Plates XXV. to XXXVIII. 



INTRODUCTION. 

 On publishing in these Transactions, and in the Enghsh language, a work which 

 we at first intended for the Geological Society of France, it may perhaps be useful to 

 make known the motives by which we have been guided. For several years the great 

 questions of Biology raised by the study of fossils had called our attention to those 

 deposits which were first formed on the surface of the globe, and we thought there 

 might be found upon this same surface important materials for the history of life, 

 — materials which had hitherto been too much neglected ; we also thought that 

 any general conclusions upon this subject would appear immature before subject- 

 ing those beings which were first developed to a more profound examination. 



Whilst the same idea had led Mr. Murchison to make the first great step in the 

 zoological classification of the deposits beneath the carboniferous limestone by the 

 establishment of the Silurian and in conjunction with Mr. Sedgwick of the Devonian 

 systems, we were occupied in collecting the fossils which are found in the same beds 

 in France, in Belgium, in the Eifel, and in various parts of Germany. One of us 

 in particular, during several journeys through the Rhenish provinces, had collected 

 numerous materials, having been actively seconded by the modest and learned 

 geologists of these provinces, who, animated by the true love of science (a dispo- 

 sition more usual in Germany than in other countries), are always ready to help 

 those who manifest the desire of forwarding its progress. 



We shall particularly mention M. Erbreich, Inspector of Mines at Siegen ; M. 

 Schnur, Professor at Treves ; M. Dannenberg, Mining Engineer at Dillenburg ; 

 Dr. Hasbach and M. Pongard of Daun ; and we are happy here to offer them our 

 grateful thanks for the assistance we have received from them in connexion with 

 this subject. Without their aid it would have been very difficult for us to have 

 recognized the general laws of classification of these ancient rocks amid the dis- 

 order which reigns among them. This useful cooperation had then enabled us 

 to amass a tolerably complete collection of facts relating to the fauna of these 



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