MOTES ON THE GEOLOGY OF DERBYSHIRE. 37 



Many fossils have been found in the Carboniferous limestone of 

 Derbyshire, and various lists have been published, the latest one 

 being in the Survey Memoir — but nothing has been done, I think, 

 to work out their distribution in the various horizons of the lime- 

 stone. Mr. Howe, of Matlock Bath, is at present working at the 

 corals of the districts, and will shortly, I believe, publish the results 

 at which he has arrived.* 



In the Carboniferous limestones of Derbyshire occur beds of a 

 dark coloured rock commonly called '' Toadstone." Its appear- 

 ance in the field and its microscopic structure prove that the beds 

 are parts of lava streams which flowed from various sources and 

 at various times, while the limestone was being deposited at the 

 then sea-bottom. It has often been referred to, and a few micro- 

 scopic sections were described by Mr. Allport, but no detailed 

 work on it has been published. During the last three or four 

 years I have been working at it in the field and am now engaged 

 in examining microscopically a large number of specimens. I 

 hope next year to have a paper ready on the lava and beds of 

 fragmental rock, which have been mapped as Green-stone by the 

 Geological Survey. 



The main physical features of the county are so closely con- 

 nected with its geological structure that the one can hardly be 

 considered without the other ; and the connection between the 

 geology and scenery should be interesting not only to 

 geologists but to all lovers of nature. Messrs. Fletcher and Ward, 

 in the last volume of our Journal, have, in a popular manner, 

 given examples of the origin of our scenery. 



It is of great importance to preserve as many permanent records 

 as possible of the strata passed through in the sinking of wells, 

 making of excavations, railway cuttings, and tunnels, as well as 

 exposures of rocks in valleys, &c. In many of these cases 

 photography comes to our aid. It would be well to work here in 

 connection with the British Association Committee on Geological 



* Since the reading of this Paper, Derbyshire has lost, by the death of 

 Mr. Howe, one of its most indefatigable geologists. 



