140 Notices respecting New Books. 



taught me to confide in, and which, therefore, it may be hoped, will 

 not mislead others. These are the ammonites generally, but Am- 

 monites calloviensis, and A. Koenigi, especially, (for that which Mr. 

 Sowerby figures from the lias in connection with the Kelloways 

 fossil, appears to me quite distinct,) and the small variety of Gry- 

 phaea dilatata. These are the very fossils which Mr. Smith so long 

 ago pointed out as proper to identify this rock in Wiltshire; and it 

 is worth remarking, that every species figured on his plate as cha- 

 racteristic of the stratum in the southern counties, may, with suit- 

 able precaution, be employed for the like purpose in Yorkshire. 

 This rock seems unknown beyond the British islands, and its fossils 

 are not, I believe, described by any foreign geologist." 



The subject of the imbedded organic remains is terminated by a 

 very valuable and laborious catalogue of all the plants and animal 

 remains hitherto discovered on this coast (505 species), arranged 

 in families according to their natural affinities, and accompanied by 

 references to all the strata in which they have been respectively 

 discovered: pp. 167-176. 



We have no room for further remarks. The history of Kirkdale 

 Cave, having been already given in full by Dr. Buckland, is here 

 condensed into two pages and a half; and a short chapter is added 

 on the Basaltic Dyke, and on the economical Uses of the Mineral 

 Productions of the Eastern part of Yorkshire. The following re- 

 marks respecting coal contain a moral of general application. 



" Coal occurs extensively in the north-eastern part of Yorkshire, 

 in the sandstone series between the gray limestone and the dogger, 

 but always in thin seams, and generally of inferior quality. The 

 immense advantages which would arise from the working of thick 

 seams of good coal, sufficiently account for the many unsuccessful 

 attempts to discover them. The opinions of working colliers on this 

 point have too often been preferred to the legitimate deductions of 

 science, and even yet persons will perhaps be found willing to credit 

 the delusive tale of finding good coal by going deeper. But the 

 warning must be given, though it be disregarded ; and from all the 

 natural exhibitions on the coast, as well as from the result of every 

 experiment inland, I am compelled to state, that any hope of dis- 

 covering seams of coal more than eighteen inches or two feet in 

 thickness, in any part of the strata above the upper lias or alum 

 shale, is entirely unsupported by reason and experience. That the 

 coal measures of Durham and western Yorkshire exist (covered by 

 magnesian limestone and red sandstone) beneath the lias, is pro- 

 bable, but the practicability of reaching them by pits, even in 

 Cleveland, or near York, is very questionable, and the expense of 

 the experiment may be ruinous. 



" Of several thin and variable seams of coal which appear among 

 the sandstone rocks above the lias, only the lower one immediately 

 above the dogger, and the upper one not far beneath the gray lime- 

 stone, have been found worth the expense of working. The upper 

 seam is the most regular, and has been worked at Cloughton Wyke, 

 Maybecks, Goadland, Glaizedale, Danby, Blakehoe, Rudland,Cox* 

 wold, Newborough Park, Colton, &c. : that this and the lower seam 



may 



