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JOURNAL OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF DUBLIN. 
the abstract of Dr, Griffith’s paper “ On the Lower Portion of the 
Carboniferous Limestone Series of Ireland,” published in the Bri¬ 
tish Association Eeport of the Cork Meeting, held in 1843. It 
appears by this paper, that Dr. Griffith had previously considered 
the Cultra beds as belonging “ to the New Bed Sandstone and 
Magnesian Limestone group;”* * * § but from a re-examination of them 
a short time before the meeting, he became u decidedly of opinion” 
that they are coeval with certain carboniferous beds in the valley 
of Ballinascreen. In the abstract, the Cultra beds are described 
as consisting of “ fine-grained red and bright yellow calcareous 
sandstone, containing some beds of bright yellow fossiliferous dolo¬ 
mite, containing casts of Cucullcea complanata, C. unilateralism C . Har- 
dingii, C. trapezium, Pullastra antiqua, with Nucula, Cypricardia, 
and some obscure univalves.”*}* It is necessary to observe, that 
most of these names belong to fossils previously described by Mr. 
J. de C. Sowerby, and found in the Old Eed Sandstone (Upper 
Devonian) of Marwood, in North Devon. The identification of the 
Cultra fossils with upper Devonian types will somewhat explain 
why my determination of their being Permian, as announced at the 
Belfast Meeting, met with some opposition.^; 
The Cultra fossils noticed in my paper were Schizodus Schlo- 
theimi, Pleurophorus costatus, and Bakevellia antiqua.^ As regards 
the identifications given in Dr. Griffith’s paper, I have no doubt, if 
the fossils on which they were made were re-examined, that they 
would be found to agree with the Permian species just named. Mr. 
* I find this opinion expressed in Dr. Griffith’s Anniversary Address delivered 
at the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of Dublin, and published in 
the Journal above quoted. Reviewing Mr. Bryce’s paper, the Doctor observes:— 
“ This limestone has been long known, though not hitherto ^described; it is peculiarly 
interesting as being the only locality in Ireland in which magnesian limestone has 
been discovered immediately underlying the New Red Sandstone; and though its 
area is small, still, its geological position is important, and deserves consideration.”— 
Journal of the Geological Society of Dublin, vol. I., part iii., page 146. 
f Report of the British Association for 1843, Cork Meeting, part ii., page 46. 
X From a statement made by Mr. Kelly in his paper “ On Localities of Fossils 
of the Carboniferous Limestones of Ireland,” recently published in the Journal of the 
Geological Society of Dublin, vol. vii., part i., page 23, it appears that my principal 
opponent at the Belfast Meeting, Professor M‘Coy, named the Cultra fossils in Dr. 
Griffith’s list. (March 12, 1856.) 
§ Report of the British Association for 1852, Belfast Meeting, part ii. 
