in the Vicinity of Manchester. 24 y 



extensive lamellai* series of Yorkshire, or the peculiar crystal- 

 hne one of Durham. 



The stratum at CoUyhurst is exposed by a drain running 

 down the side of the bank to the river Irk, where a red marly 

 clay was visible, which on examination was found to contain 

 fossil remains*. These were extensively collected by Messrs. 

 Binney and Leigh, who made them the subject of a paper 

 which was read before the Philosophical Society of Manchester 

 and afterwards to the Geological Society of London f. 



Although mistaken in his views, great praise is due to Mr. 

 Binney, for his industry and perseverance in bringing to light a 

 number of interesting fossils of great importance in drawingcor- 

 rect conclusions concerning the nature of the stratum exposed. 



These gentlemen, in their paper, express a decided opinion 

 that the fossils belong to the marles of the new red sandstone. 

 Had this been correct, the discovery would have been a 

 valuable addition to English geology ; but subsequent inves- 

 tigation has proved that it is not. The portion of stratum ex- 

 posed is so circumscribed and buried by the diluvial mass 

 above, that little reliance can be placed upon the results of an 

 examination of its relative position. What then must we turn 

 to ? — Its organic remains. Some of these were first shown to 

 me by Dr. Charles Phillips, of Manchestei', towards the latter 

 part of October, amongst which I recognised a specimen of 

 Axinus obscurus, which afterwards proved to be one of its mosi 

 abundant fossils. From this circumstance I was of opinion 

 that the stratum would prove to be one of the divisions of the 

 magnesian limestone, and such a statement I laid before the 

 Philosophical Society at the time Mr. Binney's interesting 

 paper was read. The following section was given by that 

 gentleman, which in its general features corx'esponds with 

 what I have observed. 



Inches. 



a. Top. Variegated marles. No organic remains 6 



b. Strong red niarle, traversed near its centre by a thin layer of fragile 



bivalve shells 5 



e. Light-coloured calcareous marles, marked with lines and spots of a 

 beautiful red 3 



d. Light-coloured calcareous strong marie, containing immense num- 



bers of univalves (Turbo) and bivalves 5 



e. Clays, striped red and white, containing casts of bivalves 4 



/. Light-coloured marie, similar to No. 4 3 



g. Variegated mnrles, with an immense number of univalves and bivalves 2 



The seams d and f in the section called calcareous marles, 

 are in fact concretionary nodules of limestone, containing spe- 



* Specimens of which, as early as 1832, had been sent to London by my 

 friend Mr. Francis Looney. 



t [See our last volume, p. 671. — Edit.] 

 2 E2 



