THE GEOLOGIST 



DECEMBER, 1859. 



THE CARBONIFEROUS SYSTEM IN SCOTLAND CHARAC- 

 TERIZED BY ITS BRACHIOPODA. 



By Thomas Davidson, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S., Hon. Member of the 

 Geological Society of Glasgow, etc., etc. 



Much has been written on the geology of Scotland, and perhaps no 

 country has given birth to a larger proportion of eminent inquirers. 

 The names of Hutton, Playfair, Murchison, and Lyell will ever be 

 remembered among those of the great Scotclimen, who by their 

 acquirements, genius, and perseverance, have so materially contri- 

 buted to elevate the science of Geology to the rank it now holds 

 among all men of learning. 



Much has, however, still to be achieved before the geological and 

 palaeontological details connected with our country will have been 

 completely worked out, and many zealous inquirers must be sum- 

 moned to the field ; some will do much, others little ; but every accu- 

 rate observation is so much gain, and will tend towards the complete 

 elucidation of the subject, as well as help to form a basis upon which 

 great minds may found with safety their general views and appre- 

 ciations. I therefore hailed with much hope and delight the founda- 

 tion of a Geological Society in Glasgow, which originated in May, 

 1858, with about a dozen young men, who wished to gain knowledge 

 of the geological phenomena in the neighbourhood of their great 

 city, under the guidance of an experienced and practical geologist ; 

 and thus, owing to the active co-operation and direction of Mr. J. P. 

 Eraser, and that of some of its founders, the Society has already done 

 some good work, and increased its numbers to about one hundred. 



Scotland was long believed to be poor in organic remains, and 

 although many are the remarkable fossil organisms that have been 

 made known from time to time,* it is only within the last twenty 



* Who is unacquainted witli the wonderous fishes discovered and so admirably 

 described by Agassiz, H. Miller, Egerton, and others, such as the Pterichthys, 

 Coccosteus^ JDipteruSy Cephalaspis, Holoptycliius, Megaliclithys, Asterolepis, etc. ? 

 Have not the Telerpeton Elginense^ the Stagonolepns^ the Pterygotus hilohus, etc., 

 VOL. II. T T 



