DAVIDSON — ON BRITISH CARBONIFEROUS BRACHIOPO DA. 



43 



Many of M' Coy's so-termed Devonian species were not, however, to 

 be found in any of the Irish collections, and then 1 existence as 

 Carboniferous fossils must, consequently, remain as " not proven," for 

 the author of the " Synopsis," does not furnish us with any evidence 

 as to the correctness of his determinations in the shape of illustrations. 



Mr. Kelly, whose knowledge of Irish geology appears to equal, or 

 even exceed that of any other man, expresses himself very averse to 

 my rejecting so many Devonian species, said to have been found in his 

 Carboniferous strata and localities, and considers I am not justi- 

 fied in passing judgment on the contents of between seventeen 

 and eighteen thousand square miles of Carboniferous limestone said 

 to exist in the sister island ; but I do not presume to pass sentence 

 upon any but those I am certain to be due to incorrect identification, 

 and which have been so stamped by Prof, de Koninck, Mr. Salter, 

 and myself, and at present existing in Sir R. Griffith's collection. 

 All I wish to say with reference to the others is that, never having 

 been able to procure the sight of a specimen, I am bound to state and 

 believe that their existence is " not proven ;" but I shall be delighted 

 to admit and catalogue hereafter any of which a specimen or correct 

 figure can be produced, and which on comparison will be found to 

 agree with Silurian or Devonian types. In my monograph I have 

 described those species only of which I have seen a specimen, or of 

 whose existence I felt certain, and of which I was able to give a 

 figure ; for it appeared to me preferable to limit myself to what was 

 certain, than to swell out my work by the introduction of a large 

 amount of very doubtful matter. Mr. Kelly has informed me by letter 

 that a large portion of the doubtful fossils were got in localities of 

 the Calciferous slate, a band which lies next under the limestone ; 

 that out of some seventy not proven to me, because I have not seen 

 specimens, twenty-two were obtained at Lisnapaste and Donegal ; 

 that in these localities there is a great variety ; and that they 

 occur in black soft shale, as soft and as easily decomposed by 

 exposure to the atmosphere as any that occurs in the coal-measures ; 

 that a lump of this black shale exposed to sun and rain for one sum- 

 mer, would slake or fall to pieces ; and he therefore supposes that by 

 far the larger number of Lisnapaste specimens that were originally 

 in Sir B,. Griffith's collection were lost by their removal to the 

 Great Exhibition held in Dublin, in 1852, as those tender shales 

 would not bear the agitation of carriage, and consequently mouldered 

 away into very small fragments. That there are six or eight other 

 localities in the Calciferous slate in which similar shales occur with 

 fossils, and that he finds upon looking over his lists that most of the 

 Devonian species I object to were obtained in those localities. Along 

 with Lisnapaste there is Larganmore, Bruckless, Kildress, (the red 

 shales near Cookstown in the Old Red series), Bundoran, Malahide, 

 Curragh, etc. 



Having premised so much, we will now give a catalogue of all 

 the species at present known to us from England, Scotland, and 

 Ireland. 



