210 The American Geologist. October, jso'j 
THE DEVONIAN SYSTEM IN CANADA.* 
By J. F. VVhiteaves. 
To ihe student of the early literature of the Palaeozoic rocks, 
and especially to the pakeontologist, the name of William 
Lonsdale will always be associated with the Devonian System. 
Although the term Devonian was first definitely proposed 
by Sedgwick and Murchison in a paper read April, 1839, and 
published in the fifth volume of the second series of Transac- 
tions of the Geological Society of London, the aiithors of this 
paper are careful to state, (first) that "Mr. Lonsdale, after an 
extensive examination of the fossils of South Devon, had pro- 
nounced them, more than a year ago, to form a group interme- 
diate between the Carljoniferous and Silurian systems," and, 
(secondly) that "the previous conclusions of Mr. Lonsdale 
.... led the way to their proposed classification of the 'Cornish 
and Devonian formations." 
Lonsdale, himself, in another paper printed in the same 
volume, distinctly claims that his suggestion, on the evidence 
of their fossils, that the South Devon limestones are "of an in- 
termediate age between the Carboniferous and Silurian sys- 
tems, and consequently of the age of the old red sandstone," 
was first made in December, 1837. S. P. Woodward, in the 
preface to the first part of his "Manual of the MoUusca," dated 
March, 1856, speaks of Lonsdale as his "friend and master, 
the founder of the Devonian system in geology." 
Yet, so lately as in August, 1897, Mr. Marr is stated to 
have saidf that "the Devonian system had been founded on 
stratigraphical grounds by Murchison and Sedgwick, and on 
palieontological grounds by Lonsdale and Etheridge." Surely 
it would have been more correct to have said that the exist- 
ence of the Devonian as a distinct geological system was first 
indicated by Lonsdale in 1837 on purely palasontological evi- 
dence, and subsequently confirmed by Sedgwick and Murchi- 
son in 1839 on stratigraphical considerations. 
However this may be, rocks of Devonian age have been 
discovered at various times in almost every province and dis- 
*Address of the vice-president and chairman of section E, Am. Assc. 
Adv. Sci., Columbus, Ohio, Aug. 21, 1899. 
tQuarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. LIII, 
page 460. 
