PENGF.LLY — FOSSTLS OF DEVOX AND CORNWALL. 31 
fore, that the Barnstaple beds are somewhat more modem tliau those 
of Petherwiu. 
TABLE XII. 
Genbba. 
P. 
B. 
c. 
A 1 
1 
J. 
■ ■ ■ 
5 
1 
3 
10 
T^pn f rp M 1 it PC 
11 
]^ 
5 
Fenestella 
1 
19 
Chonetes 
"2 
16 
Product us 
"i 
3 
48 
1 
16 
Axinus 
1 
9 
"i 
9 
4 
14 
2 
15 
3 
1 
14 
1 
16 
Nautihis 
1 
40 
10 
19 
247 
We are prepared, by even a slight acquaintance with the geogra- 
phical distribution of existing organisms, to find that deposits strictly 
contemporary, lithologically similar, and closely connected geographi- 
cally, have certain fossils peculiar to each ; but, unless we recognize 
time as a factor, it will be difficidt to explain the following striking 
results in Petherwin and Barnstaple. Together they have yielded as 
many as one hundred and thirty-one species of fossils, yet have no 
more than seventeen in common ; the fossils belong to forty-six 
genera, of which twenty-five are confined to one or other of the two 
areas, having amongst them the rich genus Clymenia, with its eleven 
species all closely restricted, in Britain, to Petherwin, yet occurring 
in continental Europe. The remaining twentv-one genera are re- 
presented by eighty-six species, but the representatives are rarely 
identical in the two areas, the peculiar being to the common as 
69 to 17, that is, as 4 to 1. Contend that these beds are strictly 
contemporary, and the facts remain to puzzle ; grant but the lapse 
of time, and, at least, part of the difficulty disappears, and thereby 
furnishes another argument in favour of the opinion now advocated. 
Returning for a moment to Tables X. and XI., it will be seen that 
the Barnstaple have a smaller number of fossils in common with the 
Lower Devonian, and even the Petherwin beds, than with the Carbo- 
niferous ; hence they may be considered as belonging rather to the 
last than to the Devonian series, o#, possibly, may have to be re- 
garded as " passage beds " between them. 
