3^3 EEPORT— 1864.. 



slightly reflected. The lower part of the mouth is semicircular ; it is not 

 effuse or spread outwards, as iu Eulima or Aclis. 



I cannot conclude without acknowledging my obligations to Mr. Peach 

 for the diagram which has illustrated this paj^er, and to my old and worthy 

 friend Mr. Alder for the loan of an exquisite drawing of the animal of 

 Stilifer Turtoni, made by him a few years ago, and which fully confirms my 

 account of its organization. 



Report of the Committee on the Distribution of the Organic Remains 

 of the North Staffordshire Coal-field. — Preliminary Notice. By a 

 Committee, consisting of Sir Philip de M. Grey Egerton, Bart., 

 M.P., F.R.S., Professor J. H. Huxley, F.R.S., and William 

 MoLYNEux, F.G.S. (Reporter). 

 The great or Pottery coal-field of North Staftordshire is triangular in form, 

 the apex resting to the North between ridges of the Millstone-grits of Bid- 

 dulph Moor and Mow Cop, the base stretching out from Madeley on the 

 west to "Weston Coyney on the east, bordered by Permian and New Red 

 Sandstones, a distance of nearly ten miles. With this may be included the de- 

 tached measures of Cheadle, Chcddleton, "WetleyMoor, and the Roaches, the 

 whole comprising an area of upwards of eighty square miles. It is difficult to 

 determine the actual number of workable beds of either coal or ironstone 

 contained in these fields, in consequence of the lithological difference in the 

 measures of collieries distant from each other ; but notwith^anding this, it 

 appears tolerably certain that there are from forty-five to fifty workable 

 seams of coal 2 feet and upwards in thickness, and about half that number 

 which may be taken as of little or no commercial value, the whole constituting 

 a mass of about 180 feet of solid coal. With these are associated about twenty 

 workable bands of ironstone, and numerous others of inferior quality and 

 local range, but interesting from the character of the organic remains they 

 are generally found to contain. 



The base of the series is a somewhat remarkable band of hoematite resting 

 immediately upon (or separated by an ii-regidar deposit of yellowish clays from) 

 the Upper Millstone-grits of Ipstones and the Churnet valley. There is a tra- 

 dition that this ore was worked by the Danes 800 years ago ; and this opinion 

 is strengthened by the fact of the stone having been extensively worked 

 along the sides of the Churnet valley at a time (of which no other record 

 exists) previous to its rediscovery by a Coruish miner, named Bishop, within 

 the last few years. Many thousands of pounds have been lost in the fruitless 

 search for this stone outside the basin m which it appears to be confined, and 

 efforts are stiU being made to reach it iu the neighbourhood of CeHarhead 

 and Wetley Moor. From this to the uppermost of the unproductive beds 

 of the coal-field, the measiu'es represent a thickness of nearly 5700 feet, 

 and to the work of collecting and tabulating the organic remains of this enor- 

 mous thickness of strata, grouped over an area of eighty square miles, the 

 last two years have been principally devoted ; but it will require another 

 year at least to prepare satisfactory tables of the distribution of the fish and 

 shells of which the field contains such varied and interesting examples. 



Pre-vious to last year but one instance was known of the occurrence of 

 marine shells in other than deposits belonging to the lower, or lowest mea- 

 sures of this field. The exception consists of the discovery, about five years 

 ago) of Discinge in a nodule of the Priors-field ironstone, which lies near the 



