Review of the Classification of the Palæozoic Formations adopted by M. Dumont for the Geological Map of Belgium, with Reference to its Applicability to this Country

Abstract

The division of the palaeozoic series adopted by M. Dumont for the beautiful Geological Map of Belgium, which he has just completed by order of the Belgian Government, must necessarily produce a change in many of the views of English geologists; since he has now worked out, by the strict evidence of superposition, the order of the formations lying between the old unfossiliferous slates of the Ardennes and the Carboniferous series, while the unconnected position of those formations in England has prevented us from ascertaining their relative ages with certainty. Having had the advantage, in company with several of our colleagues, of discussing with M. Dumont the value of his divisions and of inspecting the fossils collected from them, I hasten to bring the matter to the notice of the Society, that the valuable results of M. Dumont's labours may be made known and applied here. The following extract from M. Dumont's “Tableau des Terrains de la Belgique” contains the description of the older stratified rocks, from the Coal-measures down to the unfossiliferous slates of the Ardennes:— In the above table there are two important alterations of the views published by M. Dumont in 1830 in the well-known Memoir on the Province of Liege, which have an important bearing on our English classification. In the memoir of 1830 the Systeme quartzo-schisteux inferieur , following next below the limestone since identified with that of the Eifel and of South Devonshire, was divided into an upper division of red sandstone with conglomerate, and