44 report — 1865. 



to marine conditions, and those assumed to be of brackish or freshwater 

 origin. 



Of all the forms of life met with in these fields the little Cytheropsis is the 

 most numerous and persistent. It occurs in almost every distinct mineral 

 deposit, and sometimes forms compact masses several inches in thickness, and 

 entirely separated from all other organisms ; at others it appears in associa- 

 tion with Mieroconchus alone, or is mixed indiscriminately with fish and 

 shells, or forms a thin layer'or parting between beds of shale or ironstone, or 

 the nucleus of ironstone nodules. It is, however, a fact of some importance 

 in the question referable to the conditions under which certain coal and iron- 

 stone beds were deposited, that the little fossil has never been found in the 

 fields under notice in direct association with shells known to be marine. A 

 most interesting example of this severance oecurs in the shales of the Stinking 

 Coal at Windsend, in the Churnet valley. The lower parte of these shales im- 

 mediately overlying the coal are remarkable for the immense number of Avi- 

 culopectens they contain in a compressed form, and associated with Goniatites, 

 Orthoceras, and Posidonia. In various instances the same shale-bed has yielded 

 Ci/theropsis and Beyriehia, and occasionally Anthracosia ; but these three latter 

 fossils are always separated from the former. After repeated examinations, 

 it has been ascertained that about two feet above the coal a well-defined 

 division occurs in the form of a bone-bed, containing teeth, scales, coprolites, 

 and other remains, with frequent concretionary nodules, distinctly compressed 

 into the under surface of the shales. Above this line the Avievlopecten never 

 passes, and in no instance have the Ci/theropsis or Anthracosia been found 

 below it ; but each organic deposit is separated from the other as clearly and 

 distinctly as could have been effected by the intervention of thick masses of 

 strata. 



With Cytheropsis are frequently found Beyriehia, Mieroconchus, and Ser- 

 pula, but the latter genus is by no means so generally distributed. Beyriehia 

 oocurs in great numbers in the shales of the Cockshead ironstone at Adderley 

 Green, in association with Cytheropsis and Mieroconchus ; but Serpula, so far 

 as has been proved, is confined to the shales of the Woodhead coal in the 

 Cheadle field. Each of these forms, like Cytheropsis, is confined to the beds 

 containing Anthracosia ; they never pass into the marine horizons of either the 

 upper or lowest measures. 



Until the present year these fields were not known to contain any of the 

 higher order of Crustacea ; recently, however, a fragment of Limulus has 

 been met with in a small nodule of the Hard Mine ironstone at Adderley 

 Green ; and more recently still a curious ironstone deposit, lying near the 

 base of the lowest measures of the Churnet valley, has been found to contain 

 Maoruran remains of an interesting form associated with Cytherop>sis and 

 Anthracoptera. It is by no means unlikely that these latter organisms may 

 be found to pass into the higher strata ; but so far they appear to be con- 

 fined to the particular bed in question. 



The fish-remains of these fields are of an exceedingly interesting character, 

 and in certain beds occur in great numbers, and in a most beautiful state of 

 preservation. Many new forms have been met with, and individual speci- 

 mens of well-known species occasional^ come to hand, by which some im- 

 portant anatomical points have been satisfactorily established. The whole of 

 these remains are now undergoing examination, and ere long a more complete 

 knowledge of their specific character will be arrived at. 



Of the Ganoid fishes, the most commonly distributed are the Paheonisci, 

 which range throughout the whole of the four great divisions of the fields, 



