82 Proceedings of the Royal PJtijsiccd Society. 



however, takes place in Fifeshi re, where a magnificent section 

 is exposed along tlie sea coast. One of the first, if not the 

 first description of these beds and the accompanying Carboni- 

 ferous limestones was given many years ago by Mr Landale 

 in a "Eeport on the Geology of the East of Fife Coalfield,"* 

 with a list of orsranic remains. The next to investi^^ate these 

 beds was the Eev. T. Brown, whose classic paper, " Notes on 

 tlie Mountain Limestone and Lower Carboniferous Eocks of 

 the Fifeshire Coast from Burntisland to St Andrews,"-f- is 

 too well known to need comment from me. Mr Brown 

 showed the existence of a copious marine fauna at certain 

 horizons in the lower series. From one of these, the Ardross 

 limestone, he obtained fossils which would by no means do dis- 

 credit to many limestones of the Lower Carboniferous Lime- 

 stone Group, but containing distinctive shells, the chief of 

 which is a well-marked Schizoclus. Several other defined 

 horizons were detected by Mr Brown, for instance, the Naticci 

 bed at Billowness and Caiplie, and again at Fifeness. 



More recently Mr J. W. Kirkby has published the result 

 of researches carried on in the same district for some years,| 

 and in doing so has greatly increased the number of marine 

 bands in this series than previously known to us. The 

 lowest is seen at An struther- Wester, where one species each 

 of Cephalopoda, Gasteropoda, and Lamellibranchiata is 

 found. The group of marine beds at the top of the Series 

 (Zones, 1-4), between St Monance and Pittenweem, when 

 compared with the Carboniferous Limestone, present a fauna 

 rich in Bivalves and poor in Brachiopods. Much difference 

 in the fauna is not visible till below Zone 5, when 

 one or two species occur so often and abundantly "as 

 to mark these lower measures with special palaeontological 

 features." Such are Mycdina modioliformis, Scliizodus Salteri, 

 Platyostomella Scotohurdigalensis, and a greater paucity of 

 Brachiopoda. Mr Kirkby finds that the zones of fossils are 

 not all equally marine, but some more so than others. 



* Trans. Iligli. Soc, 1838, v., ]). 338. 

 + Trans. Roy. Soc, Edinb., 1861, xxii., pp. 385-404. 



X "On the Zones of Marino Fossils in tlie Calcilerous Sandstone Series of 

 Fife" (Qunrt. Jour. Geol. Soc, 1880, xxxvi., ])p. 559-590). 



