Vice-President’s Address. 201 
Geological Survey Map, Sheet 22,! the following description 
is given of the Coal-Measures in descending order :— 
Coal-Measures consisting of— 
(b) Red sandstones, marls, fireclays, and shales, etc., 
with Carboniferous plants. It contains no coal 
seams. 
(a) A group of white and grey sandstones, dark 
shales, fireclays, ironstones, and coals. 
The upper group of red sandstones (4) is conjectured to 
lie unconformably on the lower group (a).? 
In some other’ districts, as in the Lanarkshire Coal Field, 
thin coal seams occur occasionally in the upper group of red 
sandstones, but they are of no economic value.® 
These red beds are also seen overlying the coal-bearing 
series in Stirlingshire,* Fife, and the Dalkeith Coal Field, 
Midlothian.® 
A most interesting section of these red measures—the da?’ 
of the Geological Survey—has been described by Messrs 
Binney and Kirkby.® 
It is seen on the coast of Fife between the river Leven and 
East Wemyss, and consists of red and purplish sandstones, 
shales and marls, blotched with yellow and green, varying in 
tone, but assuming a more or less pronounced red colour, 
with thin beds of impure coal, a thin bed of argillaceous 
limestone, and a bed of Entomostracan hematite. This 
series, as developed here, according to Messrs Binney and 
Kirkby’s observations, lies conformably on the Lower Coal- 
Measures, and has a thickness of 947 feet. 
One of the chief interests of this section is found in the 
fossil plants which have been collected from several of the beds. 
These red beds are generally very barren, and excepting 
1Mem. Geol. Survey of Scotland—Explanation of Sheet 22. Ayrshire 
(north part), with parts of Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire. Edin., 1872, p. 9. 
* Loc. cit., p. 22, paragraph 42. 
5 Mem. Geol. Survey of Scotland—Explanation to Sheet 23. Lanarkshire, 
Central Districts, 1878, p. 35, paragraph 69. 
* Mem. Geol. Survey of Scotland—Explanation of Sheet 31 (1879), p. 42, 
paragraph 75. = 
°Mem. Geol. Survey of Scotland—Geology of the Neighbourhood of 
Edinburgh, 1861, p. 110. 
® Quart, Jour. Geol. Soc., vol. xxxviii, (1882), p. 245. 
