Volume 2

A monograph of the British fossil crustacea, belonging to the order merostomata / by Henry Woodward.

  • Woodward, Henry, 1832-1921.
Date:
[between 1860 and 1869]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A monograph of the British fossil crustacea, belonging to the order merostomata / by Henry Woodward. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/62 (page 46)
    On the Discovery, by Mr. Robert Slimon, of Fossils in the uppermost Silurian Rocks, near Lesmahago, in Scotland, with Observations on the Relations OP THE PaL.®OZOIC StRATA IN THAT PART OF LANARKSHIRE. By Sir RODERICK Impey Murchison, d.c.l., f.r.s., v.p.g.s., and Director-General of the Geo- logical Survey. (Reprinted, by permission, from the ‘Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London ’ for 1856, vol. xii, pp. 15—19.) ‘^Introduction.—At the last meeting of the British Association [in 1855], Mr. Robert Slimon brought to Glasgow two remarkable collections of fossils from the extensive parish of Lesmahago, in which he practises as a surgeon. One of these collections was derived from the bands of Carboniferous Limestone, which there alternate with Coal, and are characterised by a great abundance of fine specimens of Producti, Encrinites, Corals, and other remains peculiar to deposits of that age. The other consisted of specimens of Crustaceans in dark-coloured schist or flag, and to two or three specimens of which my attention, as President of the Geological Section, was fortunately called by Mr. David Page. The magnificent collection of Mr. R. Slimon had, in fact, remained almost unobserved, in a hall which few geologists visited. “ The moment I cast my eye over these remarkable Crustaceans, which much resembled Pterygoti, and saw the matrix in which they were imbedded, it occurred to me that they probably pertained to the Uppermost Silurian zone. It became, therefore, necessary to visit the locality in question, chiefly for the purpose of ascertaining the physical relations of the dark schist with large Crustaceans to the Old Red Sandstone. For, as I was aware that the genus Pteryyotus had been found as low in the Silurian rocks as the Upper Caradoc band, it might prove that there was the same great hiatus near Lesmahago as had up to this time been supposed to prevail all over Scotland, and that no representative of the Uppermost Silurian existed. On the other hand, the band in question might prove to be that which I shall endeavour to show it is, viz. the true representative of the highest Silurian zone, as developed in Herefordshire, Shropshire, and Westmoreland in England, in Russia on the Continent of Europe, and also in North America. “ Having requested Prof. Ramsay to accompany me, we visited Lesmahago to- gether, and there found, to our gratification, that the worthy and modest Mr. Slimon had not only a much richer collection of the fossils in question than he brought to Glasgow, but had also an accurate acquaintance with many of the prominent and detailed features of the tract. Guided by him to the best natural sections, and particularly to the spot on ‘ Logan Water,’ hitherto famous only in Scottish song, where he had found