
Pant II. Suor. iii, (1) §2.] OLD RED SANDSTONE. 717 
contemporaneous ice-action. Such are the breccias of the Lammermuir 
Hills, and those which show themselves here and there from under the 
overlying mass of Carboniferous strata that flanks the Silurian hills of 
Cumberland and Westmoreland. Red conglomerates and sandstones 
appear interruptedly at the base of the Carboniferous rocks even as far as 
Flintshire and Anglesea. ‘They are commonly classed as Old Red 
Sandstone, but merely from their position and lithological character. 
No organic remains have been found in them. ‘They may therefore, in 
part at least, belong to the Carboniferous system, having been deposited 
on different successive horizons during the gradual depression of the land. 
In Devonshire, at Barnstaple, Pilton, Marwood, and Baggy Point, 
certain sandstones, shales, and limestones (already referred to in the 
account of the Devonian rocks) graduate upward into the base of the 
Carboniferous system, and appear to represent the Upper Old Red Sand- 
stone of the rest of Britain. They contain land plants and also many 
marine fossils, some of which are common Carboniferous forms. ‘They 
thus indicate a transition into the geographical conditions of the Car- 
boniferous period, as is still more clearly illustrated by the corresponding 
strata in Scotland. | 
The Old Red Sandstone attains a great development in the south and 
south-west of Ireland. The “Glengariff grits,’ some 10,000 feet thick, 
pass down into Upper Silurian strata, and may, perhaps, represent the 
Lower Old Red Sandstone of Scotland. The rocks are covered uncon- 
formably by the “Old Red Sandstone” of Irish geologists, which may 
be the equivalent. of the Scottish Upper Old Red Sandstone. This over- 
- lying mass of sedimentary material consists of two members, a lower 
very thick series of green, purple, and reddish grits or slates and an 
upper thin set of grey or yellowish flagstones. They have yielded a few 
fishes (Bothriolepis, Coccosteus, Pterichthys, Glyptolepis), some crustaceans 
(Belinurus, Pterygotus), a fresh-water lamellibranch (Anodonta Jukesi), 
and a number of ferns and other land plants (Palzopteris, Sphenopteris, 
Sagenaria, Knorria, Cyclostigma).+ 
Norway, &c.—On the continent of Europe the Old Red Sandstone 
type can hardly be said to occur. Some outliers of red sandstone and 
conglomerate (p. 713) in northern and western Norway reach a thickness 
of 1000 to 1200 feet. Near Christiania they follow the Silurian strata like 
the Old Red Sandstone, but as yet have yielded no fossils, so that, as they 
pass up into no younger formation, their geological horizon cannot be 
certainly fixed. The Devonian rocks of Russia have been above referred 
to as presenting a union of the two types of this part of the geological 
series. The extension of the land of the Old Red Sandstone period, with 
its characteristic flora, far north within the Arctic circle is indicated by 
the discoveries made a few years ago at Bear Island (lat. 70° 30’ N.) be- 
tween the coast of Norway and Spitzbergen. Certain seams of coal and 
coaly shale occur at that locality underlying beds of Carboniferous lime- 
stone and overlying some yellow dolomite, calcareous shale, and red shales. 
They have been assigned by Heer to the Carboniferous series, but are 
regarded by Dawson as unquestionably Devonian. They may be corre- 
lated with the Upper Old Red Sandstone of Britain. Heer enumerates 
eighteen species; only three are peculiar to the locality, while among 
1 Prof. Hull has recently devoted much attention to the correlation of these Irish 
rocks. See in particular his papers in Q. J. Geol. Soc, xxxv., xxxvi., Proc. Roy. Dublin 
Soc. (new ser.), 1880. 
