238 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



also the result of igneous action, dissolved the calcareous nodules 

 and robbed this section of strata of the whole of its lime, though 

 whether this took place in times previous to, or subsequent to, the 

 denudation of the overlying strata, is now very difficult to say. 

 There can, however, be no doubt that it was this agent which, at 

 one time or other, deprived them of their lime, and left the strata 

 in the same rotted condition as that in which we now find them. 



In the quarries around Beith and Dairy, other beds containing 

 rotted limestone are not uncommon, but in them the rotted material 

 is found filling vertical fissures and horizontal partings between 

 the several layers of the unaltered rock through which surface 

 water has percolated in recent geological times; and they are all 

 of a quite different character from those beds seen at Glencart.* 





List of Fossils from the rotted clay filling the nodular cavities 

 in the limestone at Glencart. 



Genera and Species. Remarks. 



Spongidae. 

 Holasterella conferta. Carter. Common, and in fine preservation. 



Other forms of spicules indicate the 

 existence of Sponges belonging to 

 the Renierid and Lithistid groups; 

 while other trifid, fork-like, and 

 acerate spicules appear to be related 

 to Sponges of the genus Geodia. 

 Ostracoda. 

 Bairdiasubelongata. Jones &Kirkby. Rare; generally in the form of casts. 



,, submucronata. ,, ,, Do. do. do. 



Beyrichia radiata. ,, ,, Do. do. do. 



Polyzoa. 

 Fenestclla multiporata. M'Coy. Rare ; in the form of casts. 



Ehabdomeson gracile. Phill. Do. do. 



* On our last visit to this interesting section, we found that the beds had 

 become very much obscured, partly through the rapid weathering of the 

 exposed portion of the strata, and partly by the removal of that portion of 

 the bed in which the nodular cavities existed, this having been effected in the 

 extension of the railway to another pit in the same locality. We were, there- 

 fore, unsuccessful in obtaining any of the fossiliferous rotted clay, nor is it 

 likely to be again obtained, except by cutting through the beds at this spot 

 in a new line of section. 



