liv PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
divisions which may be compared with accumulations affected in the 
same range of geological time in other portions of the British Islands. 
The traces of supposed vegetable remains, and the anthracite noticed, 
possess no slight interest ; for though, from carbonaceous deposits low 
down in the Silurian series of Wales, we might infer the existence of 
vegetable life prior to these accumulations, anthracite, from what we 
know respecting it in other rocks and localities, is a substance afford- 
ing something more approaching to a proof of this inference. No 
doubt the carbonaceous substance in question might be produced from 
animal matter, but with our present knowledge we should rather refer 
it to a vegetable origin, so that in these rocks of the valley of the 
Tweed, we seem to attain evidence pointing to the entombment of 
vegetable remains amid the mud, silt and gravel of this remote geo- 
logical date. 
In a report on the fossil remains of Mollusca from the palzeozoic 
formations of the United States, contained in the collection of Mr. 
Lyell, Mr. Sharpe compares the older fossiliferous accumulations of 
North America with those of Europe. He endeavours “‘to ascertam 
what species are common to the American and European formations; 
how far such species have had the same duration in the two conti- 
nents, and how far similar forms of animals have existed in both at 
what may be supposed to have been the same periods, thus collecting 
data illustrative of the history of the earlier marme animals.” Another 
object was to apply this knowledge to the classification of the Ameri- 
can formations, and to see how closely they may be compared with 
those of Europe. The comparisons of the American and European 
fossils were made with specimens themselves, and Mr. Sharpe refers 
to the constant assistance he has derived from Mr. Morris in this 
labour. The number of American specimens compared was about 
200, and the bulk of the collection was from New York, with many | 
specimens from Canada and Pennsylvania. There was also a good 
collection from the blue limestone of Ohio. 
After noticing the divisions among the palzeozoic deposits of North 
America adopted in that country, Mr. Sharpe observes that, however 
convenient these may be for local purposes, there is a necessity for 
larger grouping when we compare the American with the European 
accumulations of this date; and he also considers that the suppo- 
sition of older fossiliferous beds occurrmg in the American than in 
the European series is not borne out ; on the contrary, that the oldest 
fossiliferous beds of the United States were not accumulated anterior 
to the Tremadoc or Lingula-bearing beds of North Wales. Mr. Sharpe 
also adverts to the inconvenience arising from the too minute classi- 
fication which has been made im these paleozoic beds of North 
America, a multiplication of species having ensued under the view 
that each division only contaimed certain of them, so that conse- 
quently a great number of synonyms have become necessary im his 
tables. 3 
Mr. Sharpe then enters into a detailed account of his examination 
of the American specimens, commencing with those discovered in 
the lowest rocks, and finally divides the whole series of deposits 
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