148 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



it occurs also at Fery Den, &c. The flagstone of this third or lowest member 

 of the group yields ripple-marks, rain-prints, worm-markings, and crustacean 

 tracks (of several kinds, large and small). Parka decipiens has been found in 

 the lowest grits ; and Cephalaspis in the sandstone at Brechin, immediately 

 under the grey flagstones. 



In the second member, namely the grey flags, fish-remains have of late been 

 found more or less abundantly throughout the district, together with crus- 

 tacean fossils. Cephalaspis Lyellii, Ichthyodorulites, Acanthodian fishes, Ptery- 

 goid, Eurypterus, Kampecaris Forfariensis, Stylonurus _ Powriensis, Parka 

 decipiensy and vegetable remains are the most characteristic fossils. 



The author pointed out that some few genera of fish and crustaceans were 

 present both in this zone and in the Upper Silurian formation, and that still 

 fewer links existed to connect the fauna of the Forfarshire flags with the Old 

 Red Sandstone north of the Grampians, with which it appears to have, in this 

 respect, almost as little relation as with the Carboniferous system. "With the 

 Old Red of Herefordshire these flags appear to have some few fossils in com- 

 mon ; but of about twenty species found in Forfarshire, only about four could 

 be quoted from Herefordshire. 



In conclusion, the author noticed the vast vertical development of the whole 

 series, and its great geographical extent ; and particularly dwelt upon the dis- 

 tinctness of the fauna of the flagstones of Forfarshire, as giving good grounds 

 for the treatment of the Old Red fauna as peculiar to a separate geological 

 period, both as distinct from the Silurian system, and in some degree as divi- 

 sible into two or more members of one group : — three members, if the upper 

 or Holoptychius-beds of Moray, Perth, and Fife, the middle or fish-beds of 

 Cromarty and Caithness, and the lowest or Forfarshire beds be counted sepa- 

 rately ; but two, if we regard some of the Old Red beds north of the Gram- 

 pians as equivalent in time to those on the south. 



January 9, 1861. — 1. "On the Distribution of the Corals in the Lias." Bv 

 P. B. Brodie, M.A., F.G.S. 



From observations made by himself and others, the author was enabled to 

 give the following notes. In the Upper Lias. some Corals of the genera Theco- 

 cyatlms and Trococyat litis occur. The Middle Lias of Northamptonshire and 

 Somersetshire has yielded a few corals. The uppermost band of the Lower 

 Lias, namely, the zone with Ammonites raricostatus and Hippopodwm pon- 

 derosum, contains an undescribed coral at Cheltenham and Honeybourn in 

 Gloucestershire ; and a Montlivaltia in considerable abundance at Down 

 Hatherly in Gloucestershire, at Fenny Compton and Aston Magna in Worces- 

 tershire, and at Kilsby Tunnel in Northamptonshire. The middle members of 

 the Lower Lias appear to be destitute of corals. In the zone with Ammonites 

 Bucklandii, called also the Lima -beds, Isastrcea occurs in Warwickshire and 

 Somersetshire. Dr. Wright states that Isastrcea Murchi&omi occurs in the next 

 lowest bed of the Lower Lias, namely the White Lias with Ammonites plan- 

 orbiSj at Street, in Somersetshire ; and another coral has been found in the 

 same /one in Warvrickshire. Lastly, in the cc Guinea-bed" at Binton in War- 

 wickshire another coral has been met with. 



The Montliwltice of the Hippopodium-bed and the Isastrcea of the Lima- 

 beds appear to have grown over much larger areas in the Liassic Sea than the 

 other corals here referred to. 



2. "On the Sections of the Malvern and Ledbury Tunnels, on the Wor- 

 cester and Hereford Railway, and the intervening Line of Railroad." By the 

 Kcv. W. S. Symonds, AM., F.G.S, and A. Lambert, Esq, 



in this paper the authors gave an account of the different strata exposed by 

 the cuttings of the Worcester and Hereford Railway (illustrated by a carefully 

 constructed section), including the different members of the New Red Sand- 



