NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 235 



Dairy, which had been recently discovered by Mr. -John Smith, of 

 Kilwinning, and in which he had obtained Conodont remains, as 

 well as numerous sponge spicules of various forms, besides the shells 

 of a small but very interesting group of univalve and bivalve 

 molluscs, many of which, from the peculiar manner in which they 

 have been preserved, were found in a very perfect condition. Since 

 that period I have several times visited Glencart with Mr. Smith 

 and various members, obtaining a quantity of the rotted material 

 in which the organisms are found, and during intervals of leisure I 

 have carefully examined it. 



In the following notes I intend to point out — first, the geological 

 position of the Glencart strata, and the conditions under which the 

 fossils are found ; and second, the genera and species I have been 

 able to obtain during my researches so far as they have gone. I 

 have not yet, however, had time to investigate the whole of the 

 liner material of the deposit for the smaller organisms it contains, 

 though I expect to do so ere long. 



The thin stratum at Glencart, which has yielded the fossils in 

 question, was accidentally exposed during the cutting of a branch 

 railway to an ironstone pit. The strata passed through belong to 

 the Upper Carboniferous limestone series of the Ayrshire coalfield, 

 in which lie the Highfield and Linnspout limestones of the Dairy 

 district. From quarries formerly opened in these upper limestones 

 and their accompanying shales many fine fossils have been ob- 

 tained, and plenty of material still exists in the old weathered shale- 

 heaps, from which microzoa and other larger organisms may be 

 obtained in abundance. The outcrop of limestone strata at Glen- 

 cart, in which the fossils were found, lies on the south side of the 

 railway, which, near the pit, has been excavated to the depth of 

 from eight to ten feet, exposing several thin beds of varying 

 mineral composition, all more or less weathered, or highly rotted, 

 especially those which seem to have been originally slightly 

 calcareous. In one of these weathered calcareous shale-beds Mr. 

 Smith observed numerous small, irregularly- formed cavities, vary- 

 ing in size from a boy's marble to that of a man's closed hand. 

 These were partly filled with a greyish-white soft plastic clay, 

 not unlike some of the commoner varieties of pipe-clay, and 

 not differing very much in colour from the rock itself in which the 

 cavities were found. At the time he was on the outlook for 

 fossiliferous weathered shales which might be washed for microzoa, 



Q 



