APPENDIX. 



The Fossil Flora and Fauna of the Midland Coalfields. — Report of the 

 Committee, consisting of Dr. A. Strahan (Chairman), Dr. F. W. 

 Bennett (Secretary), Mr. H. Bolton, Dr. A. K. Dwerryhouse, 

 Dr. Wheelton Hind, and Mr. B. Hobson, appointed to investi- 

 gate the Fossil Flora and Fauna of the Midland Coalfields, 



Report on the Fossil Fauna and Flora of the Southern Portion of 

 the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Coalfield. By Bobert Douglass 

 Vernon, B.Sc, Emmanuel College, Cambridge Exhibition of 1851 

 Research Scholar. 



Introduction. — The following preliminary report on the fossils of 

 the southern portion of the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Coalfield 

 records some of the results of my work during the past two years on the 

 area delineated on the one-inch map, Sheet 125 (new series) of the 

 Geological Survey, which includes that part of the coalfield south of 

 Alfreton. The chief object of this report is to record the occurrence and 

 distribution of the fresh-water mollusca, the fish, and the plants in the 

 new fossil horizons described below. 



Particular care has been taken to fix the exact stratigraphical 

 horizon from which the fossils have been obtained, and in order to 

 avoid the sources of error involved in collecting from colliery tip-heaps 

 those collieries have been selected which work only one seam of coal. 

 In all doubtful cases, as where two or more seams are worked at the 

 same colliery, confirmatory evidence has been obtained by making a 

 personal examination of the underground workings in order to locate 

 the fossils in situ. 



Previous Records. — No detailed account of the work of previous 

 observers will be given here, since this has already been done for the 

 flora by Mr. E. A. N. Arber, 1 and all the records of previous workers 

 on the fauna may be summarised in the statement that only nine species 

 of mollusca and eleven species of fish have been obtained. 



Fossil Horizons. — The productive coal-measures of this district have 

 a vertical thickness of more than 3,000 feet, and contain, as may be 

 expected, a large number of fossil horizons. In so far as the fish and 

 mollusca are concerned the underclays and sandstones are mostly 

 barren, the cannel coals usually contain fish, whilst the shales and 

 their associated beds and nodules of clay ironstone, locally called 

 ' Bakes,' are the chief repository for mollusca, fish, and plants. 



It must be noted, however, that the efforts of the present-day col- 

 lector are restricted to the strata immediately overlying the seams of 

 coal, and it is from such deposits that the fossils recorded below have 

 been obtained. 



' Proc. Yorks. Geol. Soc, vol. xvii., Pt. ii., 1910, pp. 132-55. 



