Eurijpterid Bemains in Carhoniferoiis Shales of Scot! mid. 503 



been found in the black fakes in Kingscavil. Unlike Hailes, 

 however, there was a commingling of the present life with 

 the Carboniferous life of Kingscavil, which made the search 

 more complex, yet added much to the dramatic interest of 

 the work. Some of the walls built of black fakes faced the 

 south, and afforded sunny spots where the flies and other 

 insects might enjoy the warmth of noontide. The spiders — 

 the scorpions of the present day in Kingscavil — spread their 

 webs across the interstices between the slabs and caught the 

 denizens of the air, and, having devoured the soft parts of 

 their bodies, left their wings and harder parts strewn about 

 the precincts of their dens. These were lifted indiscrimi- 

 nately by my resurrection ary trowel, and of course invariably 

 turned up in the prepared material with the fragments of 

 scorpions and Eurypterids, and thus the past and present life 

 in Kingscavil was strangely blended in a resurrection common 

 to both. Eepeatedly in searching I lifted now an insect's 

 head or wing or leg, and then a bit of scorpion or Eurypterid ; 

 now a seed of some plant still growing, and then a spore or 

 sac of some carboniferous tree — the past and present being 

 before me, making me contemporary with both. 



(3.) Whinnylmll Old Quarry, 1 mile N.E. of Burntisland. — 

 In this quarry the black fakes occur in somewhat different 

 conditions than obtain in Hailes or Kingscavil, as not only 

 are they found between laminae of sandstone, but also in thin 

 layers of blaes, an inch or so in thickness dividing thin beds 

 of sandstone 3 or 4 inches in thickness. Under about 40 

 inches of a coarse barren sandstone there is at Whinnyhall old 

 quarry 12 or 14 feet of thin beds of sandstone parted by 

 layers of blaes. These partings of blaes when thrown aside 

 weather into dust, and can be gathered and washed as easily 

 as limestone shale. The spores and pieces of scorpion skin 

 are much better preserved in blaes than in sandy fakes, as in 

 the blaes there are none of the grains of sand or flakes of 

 mica which deface by minute pitting the spores or skins 

 found in sandy fakes. The ornamentation of the spores or 

 skin are therefore much better preserved, and are often as 

 perfect as in life. The yield of scorpion remains exceeded 

 here those of the Eurypterids, still enough of the latter were 



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