752 ON CONULARIA AND HYOLITHES, 



a quadrangular aperture at the summit of the proximal end. A 

 forecast of this structure had been previously figured * by James 

 Sowerby, the summit of whose specimen had the edges of the 

 broader or truncated end of the cone turned inwards ; but this 

 seems to have been regarded by Sowerby and subsequent writers, 

 to judge from the manner in which it has been overlooked ^ 

 merely as a lateral crushing and displacement of the test. Two 

 of the Upper Silurian ConularicB f figured by the late M. 

 Barrande likewise show traces of this peculiarity, viz., C. j^Hcosa, 

 Barr., and C. anomala^ Barr. 



Mr. J. Waterhouse, M.A., Inspector of Schools, Dungog, lately 

 forwarded to the Mining and Geological Museum, Department of 

 Mines, some calcareous spherical nodules of grey micaceous very 

 hard mudstone, which he had obtained from a sandy shale in the 

 sinking of the East Maitland Coal Co.'s shaft near Farley, in the 

 Upper Marine Series, at a depth from the surface of about sixty feet. 

 These nodules proved to be very fossiliferous, containing in some 

 instances a number of Conularia inornata, almost invariably 

 associated with fossil wood. None of the Comdarice are absolutely 

 perfect, but several are of great interest from the fact that the 

 sides of the cone at the broader or proximal end are bent inwards, 

 foreshadowing the structure of the Scotch specimen previously 

 referred to. 



In some the evidences of crushing by the surrounding matrix 

 are apparent by the displacement and distortion of the transverse 

 ornamenting ridges, but in other cases the bending inwards is so 

 gradual, and the regularity of the other features so maintained, 

 that a closure of the proximal end may, I think, fairly be antici- 

 pated in Conularia inornata. Although there are too many 

 traces of pressure to warrant us in wholly ascribing this appear- 

 ance to natural form, the attention of collectors should be drawn 

 to it from the large size assumed, and important position occupied, 



* Mineral Conchology, iii. p. 107, t. 260, f. 4. 

 t Syst. Sil. Centre Bohenie, 1867, iii. t. 6, f. 1, and t. 8, f. 15. 



