22 
sought for diligently by eminent and earnest students of 
geological science. 
We had not been more than half-an-hour at the quarry, 
however, when a workman handed me a piece of stone which on 
inspection I thought contained Productus. I brought it to Sir 
Witium Guise, and he gave it as his opinion that I was right 
in my impression; and upon both of us handing it to Mr. 
Erueripce he, after the most careful examination, pronounced 
it to be Productus Scabriculus—a carboniferous shell that made 
it certain that we were looking at true mountain limestone. 
Since that time I have been fortunate in obtaining the 
following :— 
One Specimen of “ Productus Cora,” 
“ Terebratula Hastata,” 
*“ Productus Semienticulator,” 
> 9 >> 
>> > >» 
“* Rhynchonella and Spiriferon,” 
* Cyathophyllum,” 
>> >> > 
a> 9? 29 
Sixteen Specimens of “ Spirifera Glabra,” 
One Specimen of ‘ Chonetes,” 
All of which I have taken the precaution of getting Mr. 
Erueripce to examine and confirm; and I venture to think 
that we have now evidence sufficient before us to pronounce, 
without hesitation, that the Cannington Rock is True Carbon- 
iferous Limestone. That being so, thereon hangs a tale— . 
The Mendip chain has hitherto been regarded as the last 
South-Western development of the carboniferous series. I have 
always reasoned that as the Mendip chain had been rent in the 
centre by a protrusion of Volcanic Lava, and as the flanks of 
that grand range dipped North and South of this volcanic 
protrusion that divided the range, that probabilities all pointed 
to there being a coal-field South of the Mendip chain—still, so 
long as no coal measures, or their associated strata, had been 
found on the South side of the Mendip Hills, the question 
remained one of probabilities only. But I venture to say that 
what was only problematical before is certain now, and that the 
evidence produced is sufficient to justify the belief that at 
Cannington we are standing on true Carboniferous Limestone. 
