394 ME. F. G. COLLINS ON THE CULM [Aug. I9II, 



II. LITERATURE. 



The city of Exeter stands almost at the eastern extremity of the 

 southern outcrop of the Culm Measures, and therefore it is not 

 surprising that the earlier literature, which naturally is concerned 

 with broad and general views of the formation as a whole, contains 

 scarcely a reference to the beds under consideration. Had fossils 

 been found in any number, doubtless the district would have com- 

 pelled attention as time went on ; but the order of succession has 

 been fought out mainly elsewhere. 



In the Geological Survey Memoir on ' The Geology of the Country 

 around Exeter ' 1902, the Culm Measures are classified litholo- 

 gically by Mr. Ussher, and the only fossils recorded are Posidonomya 

 hecheri and two goniatites called Glyphioceras sphcericum and 

 01. crenistria (pp. 9 & 15). 



Dr. Wheelton Hind, in vol. ii of his monograph of the Carboni- 

 ferous Lamellibranchiata (Pal. Soc. 1901-1905, p. 174) and in 

 Proc. Geol. Assoc, vol. xxi (1910) p. 463, speaks as if the age of 

 the Devon Culm were well-known. But it is clear that he really 

 refers to the age of the North Devon beds, because he only mentions 

 the Waddon-Barton area of the south. The fossils from Waddon 

 Barton were long since described ; and, so far as I and my advisers 

 are aware, no collections of fossils have ever been made and no lists 

 have yet been published for the southern Culm area of Devon. It 

 is also clear from Mr. Ussher's memoir (1902) that no material 

 from this southern area, beyond the three fossils which he records, 

 was available to the Survey officers when the memoir was published. 



III. Previous Kecords op Eossils. 



The earliest mention that I have found of Culm fossils from this 

 neighbourhood is contained in Phillips's ' Eigures & Descriptions of 

 the Pala30zoic Eossi]s of Cornwall, Devon, & West Somerset' 1841. 

 In the preface to that work (p. vii) the author says 



* and lately Mr. Drury of Exeter has favoured me with the sight of some of 

 the goniatites which have been found near that place.' 



These would appear to have been all of one species, as it is only of 

 Goniatites inconstans that the locality is quoted as ' near Exeter 

 (Mr. Drury's cabinet).' 1 



In 1842 E. A. C. Austen [Godwin-Austen] mentions Goniatites 

 mixolobus and G. crenistria, and also the following plants : Pecopteris 

 lonchitica, Neuropteris heterophylla, Sphenopteris latifolia or acuti- 

 folia, Cyclopteris sp., and Calamites, as occurring in South-East 

 Devon, 2 but he gives no further particulars of locality. 



1 J. Phillips, ' Figures & Descriptions of the Palaeozoic Fossils of Cornwall, 

 Devon, & West Somerset' 1841, pp. vii, 123-24 & pi. Ii, fig. 238. 



? - ' On the Geology of the South-East of Devonshire ' Trans. Geol. Soc. 

 ser. 2, vol. vi, pt. 2 (1842) pp. 461-62. 



