114 Proceedings of the Roycd Plujsical Society. 



plants which they contain, but as yet no attempt has been 

 made to describe or catalogue the fish remains which also 

 occur in them, though much more sparingly. Mr C. W. 

 Peach was the first who directed my attention to the fact 

 that certain ironstone nodules found among the debris in the 

 pit banks at West Calder occasionally contained remains of 

 fishes ; and during the year (1878) now drawing to a close 

 I have, with the kind aid of several friends, been able to 

 bring together a considerable number of similar relics from 

 that locality, as well as from Oakbank and Broxburn. And 

 before proceeding to their enumeration and description, I 

 must express my best thanks besides to Mr Peach, also to 

 Professor Geikie, director of the Scottish Geological Survey ; 

 the Pev. Professor Duns, of the N'ew College, Edinburgh; 

 Messrs John Gibson and T. Stock, assistants in the Natural 

 History Department of the Edinburgh Museum ; and Messrs 

 Lumsden and Galletly, of Young's Paraffin Oil Works, West 

 Calder, both for the loan of specimens and for information as 

 to their localities. 



I. Fishes from West Calder and Oakbank. 



The geological position of the West Calder Oil Shales is in 

 the uppermost or " Houston coal " group of the Calciferous 

 Sandstone series, a set of strata intervening between the 

 "Burdiehouse Limestone" and the Lower Marine Limestone 

 series, and containing, besides the Houston coal seam, which 

 has at various times been wrought in localities in the district, 

 also the well-known " Binny Sandstone." The fish remains 

 occur in the " deep shale," which lies at a considerable distance 

 below the Houston coal, the Binny Sandstone intervening, and 

 are principally found in hard pyritous nodules of clay iron- 

 stone, which form a band near the bottom of the seam. Such 

 fossils are of rare occurrence in the shale itself. 



From the complex manner in which the strata of the 

 district are folded, as well as disturbed by innumerable 

 faults, it is more difficult to determine the exact position 

 of the shales wrought at Oakbank, about four miles to the 



