DAVIDSON — ON BRITISH CARBONIFEROUS BRACHIOPODA. 
43 
Many of M'Coy's so-termecl Devonian species were not, however, to 
be found in any of the Irish collections, and their 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 locahties, 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. Gfriffith'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 ^vith 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 
figm^e ; 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 R. G-rifiith'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 carnage, 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 
mth Lisnapaste there is Larganmorc, 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. 
