464 
THE GEOLOGIST, 
groupings of tlae Carboniferous deposits that have from time to time 
made their appearance in different works. 
In the valley of the Leven and Sti-ath Endrick the one formation 
passes gradually into the other without any seeming change in the 
angle of dip, so that it is scarcely possible to draw a line between 
the two systems ; and it is well known tliat the late Professor 
Fleming has often expressed a similar opinion. 
It is not, however, the object of the present paper to discuss any 
geological cpiestions, and far less the age or affinities of the Old Ued 
sandstone ; but we will conclude the little we have thought neces- 
sary to mention by a short extract taken from the last edition of 
" Silui'ia," wherein the author has stated that " the Old Red sand- 
stone in Lanarkshire is of comparatively small dimensions, from the 
great masses of rock which constitute the central and superior mem- 
bers of the group in the north-east of Scotland being there omitted, 
and that it has not afforded any characteristic organic remains ; that 
it is only in certain reddish and yellowish sandstones and shales, as 
seen in Fifeshiro, the Lothians, and particularly in Ayrshire, that the 
geologist can be said to enter among those strata which here and 
there are linked on the Carboniferous rocks above, as they unques- 
tionably are to the Old Red sandstone below, and which, according 
to the predominence of their fossil contents, may be grouped with 
either deposit, like the tilestones which connect the Upper Silurian 
with the true transition-beds which unite the Old Red with the Car- 
boniferous scries." 
No Brachiopoda have boen found in these Old Red sandstone beds 
of Scotland.* 
For general and detailed information concerning the geology of 
the Carboniferous systems we must refer the reader to the well- 
known works of Sir R. Murchison, Professor Phillips, General Port- 
lock, Sir R. Griffith, Mr. Kelly, and of many other geologists ; it 
being sufficient for our present purpose to notice that, although the 
system has been somewhat differently subdivided in England, Scot- 
* Down tho river Kildress, in Ireland, General Portlock and Mr. Kelly have 
shown that under the calciferous or calcareous slates there occurs extensive 
alternations of yellowish and reddish sandstones, then a bed of hmestone, and 
still lower down another band of red sandstone, replete with the most common 
fossils of the carboniferous period, such as Athyris ojirihiijua., Spiriferina octo- 
jMcata, Rhynclwnclla plearodon, Streptorliynchus crenistria, etc. Irish geologists 
have rightly considered these strata as constituting the lowest division of the Car- 
boniferous system, and they would be there in all probability some of the equi- 
valents of those strata which Sir R. Murchison has mentioned as occmring in 
Fifeshire and in Ayrshire, and which he considers to form the transition-beds 
between the Carboniferous and Old Red systems ; but' with this difference, that 
in Ireland the red and yellow sandstones are full of fossils, wliile none appear to 
have been hitherto discovered in the corresponding Scottish strata, although the 
same species have been found higher up in the system. It is, therefore, ques- 
tionable whether Irish geologists are justified while applying to this lower red and 
yellow division of the Carboniferous series the appellation of " Old Red sand- 
stone," in making it a plea for aimulling the Dovouian system in toto. 
