10 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



" Djas" for the older name "Permian," I take this opportunity of 

 expressing my regret tliat some G-erman geologists are returning to 

 the use of the term " Grrauwacke Eormation," as if years of hard 

 labour had not been successfully bestowed in elaborating and esta- 

 blishing the different Palaeozoic groups, all of which, even including 

 the Lower Carboniferous deposits, were formerly confusedly grouped 

 under the one lithological term of the " Grauwacke Formation." 



Respecting as I do the labours of the Grerman geologists who 

 have distinguished themselves in describing the order of the strata 

 and the fossil contents of the group under consideration, I claim no 

 other merit on this point for my colleagues De Verneail and Yon 

 Keyserling, and myself, than that of having propounded twenty 

 years ago the name of "Permian" to embrace in one natural series 

 those sub-formations for which no collective name had been adopted. 

 Independently therefore of the reasons above given, which show the 

 inapplicability of the word " Dyas," I trust that, in accordance with 

 those rules of priority which guide naturalists, the word " Permian" 

 will be maintained in geological classification. 



London : Belgrave Square. 

 Nov. 30, 1861. 



THE QEOLOQIOAL AND CHEOXOLOGICAL DISTEI- 

 BUTION OP THE DEVONIAN POSSILS OP DEVON 

 AND CORNWALL. 



By W. Pekgellt, P.G.S. 



The limestones, slates, and associated sandstones of North and 

 South Devon and Cornwall have, as is well known, caused much 

 perplexity as to their real place in the chronological series of the 

 geologist. Thanks, however, to the labours of Professor Sedgwick, 

 Sir R. 1. Murchisou, Mr. Lonsdale, and others, the problem is now 

 generally admitted to be solved; the rocks in question are the re- 

 presentatives or equivalents of the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland 

 and elsewhere ; they belong to what is known as the Devonian age 

 of the world. Some little difficulty, however, exists — or rather once 

 existed — in the way of the full acceptance of this chronology. The 

 rocks of Devonshire are crowded with the remains of invertebrate 

 animals, especially shells, corals, and sponges; whilst the supposed 

 contemporary deposits in Scotland and the adjacent islets are so 

 rich in fossil fish that, in the language of the late Hugh Miller, 

 " Orkney, were the trade once opened up, could supply witli ich- 

 thyolites, by the ton and the shipload, the museums of the world."* 

 But the fossils characteristic of either of these districts are not found 

 in the other; there are no organic links connecting the two localities. 



* ' Footprints of the Creator.' p. 2. 



