in the Cannel Coalqf Fifeshire. 311 



most likely that the eruption of the trap has been the chief cause 

 of these disturbances. 



The faults vary in width from 2 feet to 240 feet. In Halbeath 

 colliery the strata are subject to five different dislocations, in a 

 distance of about half a mile, as is represented in the annexed 

 section in Plate III., besides other troubles, which produce si- 

 milar effects on a smaller scale. The bed marked b is the seam 

 of cannel coal in which the fossil tooth was found ; it is twenty- 

 three inches in thickness, the immediate roof being a slaty sand- 

 stone, and the floor an ordinary white sandstone. 



It will thus be seen, that this bed of cannel coal, containing 

 remains of a sauroid fish, is one of a regular series of alternating 

 coal-measures of the usual characters, some of which abound 

 in vegetable remains, which, as well as those from which the 

 coal itself has been derived, must have been nourished during 

 their growth by fresh water; that it is in conformable stratification 

 with the shales containing these plants, and partakes in all the dis- 

 locations of these and the other strata. 



The interest which has been excited among geologists by Dr 

 Hibbert's researches at Burdiehouse, leads us naturally to in- 

 quire, whether the occurrence of remains of the same species of 

 sauroid fish, in this new locality, tends to shew an analogy be- 

 tween the deposit at Halbeath and that at Burdiehouse ? I 

 think it does ; not, however, by establishing a difference between 

 the beds at Halbeath and those of coal-fields in general, but be- 

 cause I have not been able to discover any thing in the pheno- 

 mena exhibited at Burdiehouse, which should lead us to consi- 

 der any member of the series of strata there as having been 

 formed in a manner different from that, which is now generally 

 considered to be the most probable explanation of the circum- 

 stances under which deposits of coal, and the accompanying 

 sandstones and shales must have taken place Dr Hibbert, on 

 the other hand, considers tlie deposit at Burdiehouse as an 

 exception to the general rule, by the existence in it of a bed of 

 limestone of peculiar characters, and which he denominates a 

 Fresh-water Formation. 



A large proportion of the stratified rocks which contain ma- 

 rine remains, may be said to be, in great part, of fresh-water 

 origin ; for the materials of which they are chiefly composed 



x2 



