393 
Devon and Cornwall, Belgium, the Eifel, S^’c. 
which would fall into two great divisions, of which the lower 
would be the Eifel limestone : but such an arrangement, he 
observes, would be quite inconsistent with nature, as proved 
by the evidence of organic remains*. That the old red sand- 
stone, however, occurs in considerable force in various parts 
of Germany, I showed in the year 1821 , when giving abs- 
tracts of the observations of M. Freiesleben on the Forest of 
Thuringia, on Mansfeld, Thuringia, and the Circle of the Saale, 
and of those of MM. Von Buch iind Von Raumer on Lower Si- 
lesia, the county of Glatz, and part of Bohemia and Upper Lu- 
satia. And at that time, this formation was also conceived to 
exist in partial distribution in the Netherlands, then forming 
the immediate support of the carboniferous limestonef. This 
view has been more recently revived by MM. Rozet and Con- 
stant Prevost, who contend that the old red sandstone of Bri- 
tain is not wanting in Belgium, stating as an example, that it is 
well developed between Dinant and Namur; that is, between 
the lower Belgian limestone which is in force at Givet, and 
the carboniferous limestone which prevails at Namur; and 
hence that M. Dumont was in error when he excluded that 
formation altogether from the series f. This appears to ac- 
cord with the prior observations of M. Von Dechen, to which 
I have referred above. 
But perhaps no evidence is more conclusive of the want of 
similarity between the Belgian and the Silurian formations 
than that which is to be derived from a consideration of the 
fossils of the Eifel limestone (which, as already shown, is 
considered as identical with the lower limestone of Belgium), 
placed in parallel with those of the Wenlock limestone; the 
fossils of the Eifel having been determined to a much greater 
extent than those of the other formations, by the labours of 
Professors Goldfuss and Bronn, and MM. Von Dechen, 
Steininger, Dumont, and Beyrich ; while the fossils of the 
Wenlock limestone have been well developed in Mr. Mur- 
chison’s highly valuable work. To institute this comparison, 
I have drawn up the following tables, founded upon a com- 
parison of the works of those authors, which may serve to 
place the subject in a clear light: — 
* Beitrlige, p. 4, General observations on the fossiliferous strata of the 
Rhenish transition slate mountains. 
t Annals of Philosophy, October 1821 ; IMd., the same subject continued 
in August 1822, May 1823, and July 1824. 
I Bulletin de la Societe Gculogique de France^ tome ix., Seance de 18 
Decembre, 1837. 
PhiL Mag, S. 3. Vol. 16, No. 104. May 1840. 2 D 
