BUFFALO SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCES 1 67 



only in the Hagshaw Hills to the chocolate-colored sandstones at the 

 top, but the only bed of particular interest in the present discussion 

 is the fish band which has been found in several places. In the 

 Monk's Water, about three-quarters of a mile south of Monkshead, 

 the following fossils are reported from this band: 



Eurypterus, small sp. 



Scorpion 



Ceratiocaris ? 



Thelodus scoticus (Traq.) 



Birkenia elegans (Traq.) 



Lanarkia spinosa (Traq.) 



L. splnulosa (Traq.) 



L. horrida (Traq.) 



Lasanius problematicas (Traq.) 



Sponge? 



II. THE OLD RED SANDSTONE 



History and Subdivision. The closing stages of the Siluric in 

 northwestern Europe were marked by an expansion of the conti- 

 nental areas and an accompanying widespread retreat of the sea 

 which left all of Great Britain except the southwestern portion of 

 Devonshire, all of Scandinavia, Finland, and the northern borders of 

 Germany dry land. Over the region thus exposed was deposited a 

 great series of conglomerates, sandstones, and shales, dominantly red 

 in color, and reaching a thickness of many thousands of feet, the 

 formations being collectively called the Old Red sandstone facies of 

 the Devonic. It was early recognized that the conditions of sedi- 

 mentation under which these deposits accumulated were essentially 

 different from those under which the marine Devonic limestones of 

 Russia, western Europe, and extreme southwest England were formed. 

 Not only did the tremendous thickness of the beds attract attention, 

 but the coarseness and prevailing red color of the deposits, and par- 

 ticularly the almost entire absence of organic remains, caused con- 

 siderable speculation on the part of continental as well as British 

 geologists on the origin of this remarkable series. In the early part 

 of the last century the suggestion was made by Dr. John Fleming 

 that the Old Red might have been deposited in lakes. This theory 

 was eagerly taken up first by Godwin-Austen (6) in 1855 and by a 

 host of later writers, each one of whom contributed some bit of evi- 



