XVI.—On the Old Red Sandstone of Western Europe

Abstract

In the early part of the present century, when stratigraphical geology, starting from the clear succession of Secondary rocks of England, was groping its way among the older formations in this country and abroad, the Old Red Sandstone occupied a somewhat indeterminate position. The series of deposits comprised under that name had been recognised chiefly in the British Islands, hardly at all on the opposite mainland of Europe. By most geologists they were classed as a subordinate and inconstant portion of the Carboniferous system, while by some they were placed rather at the top of the yet unexplored “Transition” or “Greywacke “ series. Murchison first claimed for them the dignity and importance of a distinct system. On the whole, they had yielded comparatively few organic remains; they consequently seemed to lie as a thick red barren zone between the richly fossiliferous Silurian deposits below them and the equally fossiliferous Carboniferous limestone above. By degrees, however, as they brought forth a rich harvest of new and strange ichthyolites, they indicated their own right to recognition, and when they were found covering a vast space in Russia with many of the same types of fish as they had yielded in Britain, their claim to rank as a distinct and independent system was no longer contested.