OF THE CULM OF DEVON. 65 



Lower Carboniferous of Budle, Northumberland, Prof. G. A. Lebour lias obtained 

 Posidonomya Becheri identical with that of Devonshire. 



" The Tuedian group (says H. B. Woodward) and the Lower Limestone shale 

 are homotaxial with the Calciferous Sandstone group of Scotland " (' England and 

 Wales,' p. 78). 



Whatever may be finally decided to be the exact horizon of the Culm-Measures 

 near Bideford I think it can no longer be denied that the Posidonomya and 

 Goniatite shales of both North and South Devon are really (as suggested by Dr. 

 A. Geikie, and now shown from their fossil contents by Mr. Jno. E. Lee) at the 

 very base of the Carboniferous series, and are equivalent to the Lower Carboni- 

 ferous series of the Rhenish Provinces and the Hartz. 



There is little doubt also that the plant-remains which occur in the associated 

 sandstones of the same regions are older than those of the Millstone-Grit series, and 

 must be correlated with those of the Calciferous sandstones around Edinburgh. 



The Trilobite remains from the Culm-shales of Waddon-Barton, Devonshire, 

 are met with in the same condition as the Goniatites and other fossils with 

 which they are associated. They are all highly compressed and often considerably 

 affected by cleavage, causing them to be more or less distorted. 



I recently visited Waddon-Barton, Chudleigh, and many of the localities for 

 Culm-shale fossils with Mr. J. E. Lee, and I also spent a week in breaking up 

 hundreds of pieces of the shale, two cartloads of which had been procured by Mr. 

 Lee from Waddon-Barton with the permission of Lord Clifford. Out of this I 

 obtained a large number of these Trilobites and other organisms with my own 

 hands in addition to those already obtained by Mr. Lee. 



Out of a series of nearly fifty specimens thus obtained, I have been able to 

 determine four distinct species. They are all in a very fragmentary condition, the 

 individuals varying from 10 millimetres in length (PI. X, fig. 7 a) to 23 mm. and 

 upwards (PL X, fig. 2). 



As is the case in other deposits of Carboniferous age, it is most rare to meet 

 with specimens having the head, thorax, and abdomen united. Only two approach- 

 ing this state have been discovered as yet ; the majority disclose evidence of 

 detached pygidia, whilst head- shields and thoracic rings are but rarely found. 



Making allowance for the effects of compression and distortion which the 

 specimens have undergone, they are probably all referable to the genus PMllipsia, 

 and strongly resemble in their mode of preservation the specimens of PMllipsia 

 Colei from Ballintra and Carrickbreeny, Donegal, and of Phillipsia truncatula from 

 Hook Point, Co. Wexford, Ireland. 



