336 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 
Conodonts from the Carboniferous Limestone Strata 
of the West of Scotland. By Joun Smiru. (With 
Notes on the Specimens and Descriptions of Six New Species, 
by Guo. JENNINGS HinvE, Ph.D., F.G.8.) 
[Read 30th May, 1899.] 
In the spring of 1876 I commenced to examine systematically 
the rotted limestones of Ayrshire. My first samples were from 
Cunningham Baidland, near Dalry, where the upper bed of the 
lower limestones was at that time being worked for agricultural 
purposes. By the action of acids, the limestone on each side of 
the rock jointings had been dissolved away to the extent of a 
few inches, the limestone beds having been rotted more or less at 
their edges, according to the purity or dirtiness of the stone. 
When the rock was quarried away along one of the master 
joints the quarry face presented the appearance of shelves of 
varying depths, and very rugged, owing to the limestone having 
been very irregularly dissolved. Each shelf contained a small 
quantity of a rusty-looking powder—the undissolved material of 
the limestone—and this powder was found to contain minute 
fossils which had been originally composed more or less of 
chitinous, phosphatic, or siliceous material, or had afterwards 
been more or less impregnated with silica.* 
In searching the shales of the Carboniferous limestone for 
microzoa, our plan had formerly been to rub the material 
between the hands, for the purpose of removing the shale from 
the surfaces of the minute organisms. I soon found out that 
this plan would not do for the rotted limestone débris, for’ 
although many of the fossils looked quite complete, still the 
carbonate of lime they had contained had, in many instances, 
been sucked out, rendering them very tender. 

* Although this is the usual mode of weathering of limestone, still the 
limestone in the Glencart section has weathered in a very different 
manner, the rotted part being full of subglobular cavities, an inch to two 
or three inches in diameter, the lower half, or even more, containing the 
undissolved powder, 

