On Fossil Remains in the Cambrian Rocks of the Longmynd and North Wales

The occurrence of any organism in those ancient sediments which have been so often called Azoic is of sufficient interest for an account of it to be laid before the Society. We have hitherto been acquainted with but one genus—and that doubtfully an animal or a plant—in the oldest Cambrian schists of Ireland. No fossils from rocks of this age have been recorded from England except the forms which I now describe, and of which a brief notice was sent to the last meeting of the British Association. They are a new Sea-weed, or Zoophyte, traces of marine worms, and a Crustacean of the Trilobite group.

When, a few years back, I crossed the Longmynd with Prof. Ramsay and Mr. Aveline, the unaltered and flat-bedded sandstones which abound on the eastern side, and which are quite unaffected by cleavage, appeared most promising for fossil remains, if any organisms existed at the time when these rocks were deposited. Some of these beds were ripple-marked, and the sandstones and flaggy beds of greenish-grey stone were evidently not deposits from very deep water. I hoped, therefore, that at least Oldhamia or Fucoids might be found in them, if not more highly organized fossils; and in the summer of the past year, I was able to devote three or four weeks to the search.