640 FOURTH REPORT — 1834. 



he noticed the discovery of organic remains either of some 

 species of large fishes or of Saurian reptiles in the coal-fields of 

 the West of Scotland : since that period new facts of a similar 

 nature have been brought to light in the coal-districts of Clack- 

 mannanshire, Fifeshire, and the Lothians, as well as near Glas- 

 gow, showing that these remains are not confined to particular 

 localities, but that they are very generally distributed through- 

 out the whole extent of the coal-formation in the great valley of 

 the Scottish lowlands. 



The specimens that accompany this paper were found in the 

 bituminous shale or blaes which lies immediately above, and in 

 contact with, what is called the Jewel coal, in Sir John Hope's 

 coal-works at Stoney Hill near Musselburgh. These organic re- 

 mains appear to abound in all the pits where the_^o^ seams are 

 worked in the Mid Lothian coal-field ; they have also been ob- 

 served in the edge seams, at the Edmonstone Colliery, in the 

 same coal-field, and at Dguart in Fifeshire. 



The ./e<<;e/ coal is the lowestof what are usually termed the flat 

 seams, and that of Edmonstone the highest of the edge seams ; 

 but whether these remains may be most abundant in that part 

 of the series, or whether they are equally distributed through 

 the whole, is a question that must be determined by further in- 

 vestigation. The observations which the author has hitherto had 

 opportunities of making lead him at present to believe that this 

 will be found to become more rare, if they do not entirely dis- 

 appear, as they descend in the series, and approach the lime- 

 stone containing marine shells and Encrinites, although their 

 reappearance in such vast abundance in an inferior portion at 

 Burdie House is a circumstance not easily to be accounted for. 



It may be necessary here to explain that the flat seams are 

 merely the upper beds, five in number, which, being nearer to 

 the surface, are comparatively more level than the edge seams, 

 or those which, occupying an inferior position in the series, dip 

 down to a greater depth in the basin, and are consequently seen, 

 at the places where they are worked, to stand at a much higher 

 angle ; but it has now been ascertained that the flat seams, 

 where they have been met with in this coal-field, are in every 

 respect conformable to the edge seams. 



The flat seams contain the most valuable coals in the district ; 

 but they occur only partially in the Mid Lothian coal-field, as 

 they are not to be found to the southward and westward of 

 the road from Edinburgh to Dalkeith, having, it is said, been 

 thrown off by a dyke near Sherriff Hall, beyond which some of 

 the edge seams appear to have been brought up and flattened. 

 These are worked as flat coals at the Dalhauria, Polton, and 

 Eldon collieries. 



