246 Dr Hizzerr on the Limestone of Burdiehouse, 
the remains of smaller fish. And, on examining the outcrops of 
strata in other localities, this deposit was equally wanting. 
Some other fresh-water limestones will be described in the 
supplement to this memoir. In the mean time, I shall remark, 
that they appear to me, like the limestone of Burdiehouse, mere 
local deposits of calcareous matter. 
SECTION VI.—THE STRATA INTERMEDIATE TO THE LIMESTONE OF 
BURDIEHOUSE AND THAT OF FOUNTAIN-WELL. 
The interval of space between the limestone of Burdiehouse 
and that of Fountain-well, near Loanhead, comprises alternations 
of sandstone, and argillaceous and bituminous shale, in which are 
ironstone bands, and thin and unworkable seams of coal, with the 
exception of one bed of coal, named the North Green seam, 
which lies immediately below the Fountain-well limestone. At 
the same time, although all the strata rest conformably upon 
each other, we find that their angle of inclination has gradually 
increased. At Burdiehouse, the limestone dips from 23° to 25° 
to the south-east ; but, as we approach a higher series of beds, the 
dip is 30° or 40°, and upwards. 
NOTES TO SECTION VI. 
As it is of great importance that no doubts should subsist regarding the geologi- 
cal position which I have assigned to the limestone of Burdiehouse in the carboni- 
ferous system of strata, the details will be given at length. 
It has been shewn that, immediately above the limestone of Burdiehouse, which 
is of the thickness of 27 feet, occur beds of argillaceous shale, through which bitu- 
minous matter appears to be diffused. These strata are visible, from the operation 
of quarrying, to the height perhaps of 30 to 50 feet, or even more. Alternating 
with these beds of shale are three, or even more, seams of a ferruginous limestone, 
severally from 2 to 24 inches thick, and occurring at intervals from each other of 
from 27 to 36 inches. 
With respect to strata still higher, and next in succession, I was enabled to obtain 
some little knowledge of them, in consequence of a shaft which had been sunk with 
the view of carrying off the water from a freestone quarry, situated at no great dis- 
tance, near the village of Straton. The distance between this freestone and the 
shale, was described to me as about fifty fathoms in perpendicular depth, in which 
nothing was found but Dalk ; that is, a soft argillaceous and bituminous shale. But 
this description I must a little qualify. I observed, from the fragments thrown out, 
