12 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



coiled shell from the Carboniferous limestone. The true 

 affinities of all these curious shells have yet to be worked 

 out. 



The first part of Professor M'Coy's great work, "The 

 British Palaeozoic Fossils/' appeared in 1851, and extended 

 over the next two years. It contains a more detailed list of 

 organisms, with carefully drawn-up descriptions of the fossils 

 from the south of Scotland contained in the Woodwardian 

 Museum, Cambridge. A moderate estimate of the Girvan 

 Mollusca, given by Professor M'Coy, is — Brachiopoda, 15 

 species ; Gasteropoda, 14 species ; Cephalopoda, 4 species ; 

 and Pteropoda, 1 species. 



The essential feature of M'Coy's list is the increase in the 

 number of Brachiopoda and Gasteropoda, and the occurrence 

 of the curious genus PJccyliomjjhahts, previously referred to. 

 It is arranged in a very convenient way for reference, under 

 localities, and may be consulted with advantage by those 

 who take an interest in the subject. 



In addition to the fossils from Girvan, mentioned by 

 M'Coy, he described in the same work 17 species of Mollusca 

 from the Wenlock series of Kirkcudbrightshire. 



We must now^ leave the Girvan and neighbouring districts, 

 and take a glance at the progress made elsewhere. In the 

 last edition of " Siluria," * the late Sir E. Murchison wrote 

 thus — "To the west of Lesmahagow there is an ascending 

 passage upwards from clay slates with calcareous nodules 

 and a rare Orthoceras, into black schists with large crusta- 

 ceans, which manifestly stand in the place of the uppermost 

 course of the Ludlow Ptocks of Shropshire. This important 

 fact was discovered by Mr Eobert Slimon, of Lesmahagow." f 



This remarkable discovery of Mr Slimon had been before 

 chronicled by Sir E. Murchison in 1856, whose curiosity was 

 excited at the previous meeting of the British Association in 

 Glasgow, where Mr Slimon's collection was exhibited, j 



Eeluctantly omitting any reference to the wonderful Crus- 

 tacean remains yielded by the Upper Silurian beds of Lesma- 



* 4th edit., 1867, p. 160. + Ibid. 



J " On the discovery by Mr R. Slimou of fossils in the uppermost Sihirian 

 Kocks near Lesmahagow, "etc. (Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc, 1856, xii., pp. 15, 25). 



