Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 May 2009
In the paper on the Pendleside group at Pendle Hill, Q.J.G.S., vol. lvii, p. 377, I said, “The further facts of the distribution of Glyphioceras spirale and Posidonomya Becheri set forth in the fore-going pages open up the wide question of the age of the Culm beds of Devon and Germany.” Since then I have had the great advantage of examining suites of fossils from the Lower Culm of Devonshire, collected by Mr. Hamling, of Barnstaple, and Mr. Coom´rasw´my, from the Coddon Hill Beds and other localities in North Devon. I was so interested in the fossils that I found it necessary to go down and examine the beds in which they occurred, and Mr. Hamling gave me the inestimable advantage of his guidance. In this way we examined the Lower Culm and the underlying Pilton Beds in detail from West Leigh to Fremington, and the so-called Middle Culm of Bideford and other places. I was able to see the Hall collection of fossils at Barnstaple, and again to renew my acquaintance with Mr. Hamling's collection. This visit to Devonshire, it seems to me, was fortunately planned after a visit last Summer to the Devono-Carbonif'erous succession in the south-west of Ireland, and a study of the fauna in the collection of the Geological Survey at Dublin and in the Museum of Queen's College, Cork.