TRANSACTIONS OF THB SUCTIONS. B33 



similar to those found in coal-fields. The plants are entirely 

 flattened, some of the impressions being those of small branches, 

 and of very delicate structure. It is manifest that if these 

 plants have not actually grown in the places where they are now 

 found, they could not have been transported far, from the small 

 degree of injury which they appear to have sustained. In some 

 cases impressions of leaves have been found. 



The animal remains found in a fossil state are very few. In 

 addition to the fish's tooth already noticed as having been found 

 in the sandstone conglomerates of Tweed banks, there are a few 

 shells of a minute character which appear to be the Teredo, the 

 Serpula, and Modiola, and which occur not only in these con- 

 glomerates but also in marl-strata, clearly contemporaneous 

 with it. 



As to the position of these marl-strata, in respect to their 

 dipping under or overlying the coal-measures, Mr. Milne stated 

 that there are two or three localities where these are distinctly 

 seen to be covered by the coal-measures. In particular, one 

 locality on the sea-coast was mentioned where these marl-beds 

 and the coal-measures are found in contact, and where the 

 genuine character of these respective strata is placed beyond 

 all doubt by the occurrence of gypsum in the one and of seams 

 of coal in the other. A section is there well exposed, showing 

 the contact of the coal-measures and marl-strata, the latter ma- 

 nifestly lying beneath the coal-measures. 



Mr. Milne alluded to the opinions of several distinguished 

 geologists, that the marl-rocks which he had just been descri- 

 bing belonged to an epoch more recent than the mountain lime- 

 stones or carboniferous group ; and there was no doubt that 

 they have many of the characters of the true marls or new red 

 sandstone formation. But the nature of the fossils found in it,as 

 well as the fact of its being seen dipping under the coal-mea- 

 sures, Mr. Milne stated, had led him to consider the formations 

 as subordinate to them, and deposited nearly under the same 

 circumstances. These circumstances were, the prevalence of the 

 same sea and a similar climate, as proved by the occurrence of 

 the same marine shells in both kinds of strata. One distinction 

 between them might be the vmconsolidated condition of the 

 calcareous deposits on the north of the Tweed, as compared 

 with the compact limestones on the south of the Tweed ; and 

 also the absence of the larger marine shells and corallines from 

 these marl-beds, and the occurrence in them of deposits of 

 trunks of fossil trees and branches, which have not been often 

 found in the same uncompressed state in the coal-measures. Whe- 

 ther or not these data would justify the impression that the sea, 



