Notes and Comments. 305 
covered. Reckoning downwards from a datum line three feet 
above Old Dock Sill, a section showed :— 
Sand with black carbonaceous bands . Reuteets 
IMGENE ¢ : ; c ; - : . 6 inches. 
Blue clay with rootlets . : : we4uteets 
Sand with thin bands of peat. - . 2 feet 10 inches. 
Boulder clay - : . : ; . 3 feet 2 inches. 
Bunter pebble beds. 5 - : 5 HEE ec 
The upper peat was entirely composed of marine plants, 
laminaria predominating. On the fronds were numerous en- 
crusting organisms, such as polyzoa, hydrozoa, the fry of young 
molluscs, etc. The lower peat, while consisting mainly of 
marine plants, contained a few drifted pieces of oak and other 
land plants. The sands accompanying the peat resemble those 
of the Mersey Bar, and besides the quartz which makes up the 
bulk of the deposit, contain zircon, garnet, tourmaline, dolomite, 
kyanite, rutile, staurolite, orthoclase felspar, biotite and mus- 
covite, shell fragments, foraminifera, sponge spicules and 
polyzoa. The deposit was probably accumulated in a sheltered 
bay in the old estuary of the Mersey. The chief interest lies in 
the fact that peat may be formed from marine as well as from 
land plants. 
YORKSHIRE FOSSIL PLANTS. 
In the report on the Life-zones in the British Carboniferous 
Rocks Committee, Dr. Wheelton Hind stated that he was 
fortunate enough to secure a fine collection of plants obtained 
in an abortive attempt to find coal at Threshfield, near Grassing- 
ton, in the Valley of the Wharfe. The shales are stated to be 
those which occur below a bed of Millstone grit. Mr. Kidston 
has examined the specimens, and the following list is the 
result :-— 
Sphenopteris elegans Bgt. Sphenophyllum tenerrimum Ett. sp. 
Calymmatotheca stangeri Stur. Lepidodendron sp. 
Rhodia moravica Ett. sp. Lepidostiobus sp. 
Sphenopteris sp. Small Lycopodiaceous bract. 
Calamites ostraviensis Stur. Rhabdocarpus ? sp. 
Calamites sp. 
Mr. Kidston states, with regard to the horizon: ‘I have not 
the slightest doubt that the bed these specimens come from is 
on the horizon of the Upper Limestone group of the Carbon- 
iferous Limestone series of Scotland. At any rate we know 
the Lower Limestone group of Scotland has a fauna which 
indicates the Upper Dibunophyllum zone. 
1907 September 1. 
