TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 73 



The second set of rocks claiming attention are some doloritic breccias which occur 

 in somewhat obscure and confused patches in Punchestown, Burn, and perhaps 

 elsewhere, These breccias consist of fragments of porphyritic and Lower Uarboni* 

 ferous 7-ocks embedded in a matrix of dolerite. They arc therefore at least post- 

 Tuedian, probably of Bernjcian or Carboniferous-Limestone age. We thus navo 

 in the Cheviot mass rocks of probably Devonian, Tuedian, and Bernician age 

 belonging to the same eruptive centre, 



On the Occurrence of Aviculopecten and other Marine Shells in Dejiosiis 

 associated with Seams of Coal containing Salt Water in the Ashby Coal- 

 field. By William Moltneux, F.O.S. 



The author described the strata passed through in sinkings for coal at the 

 Colliery belonging to the Coton Park and Linton Colliery Company (Limited), on the 

 Leicester branch of the Midland Railway, near Burton-on-Trent, as consisting of 

 Keuper Sandstones, Bunter Conglomerates, and Permian Marls and Breccias, about 

 •500 feet in thickness, lying horizontal and unconformable to the succeeding Coal- 

 measures. The situation of the pit was west of the supposed boundary fault of the 

 Coal-field, and about half a mile north of Gresley Station. In the shale immediately 

 overlying the Main Coal were found specimens of Aviculopecten papyraceus, Goniatites 

 Listeri, Posidonia, sp., Orthoceras, sp., and Lingula mytiloides. The coal in ques- 

 tion has long been known to contain large quantities of water, yielding, accord- 

 ing to an analysis by the late Dr. Ure, 3700 grains of chloride of sodium to an 

 imperial gallon. It is also possessed of bromine and other constituents of sea- 

 water ; and the Saline Baths at Ashby and Moira are supplied with it, the water 

 being pumped from the coal in the Moira pits adjoining. The Main Coal had been 

 worked at its base or outcrop many hundreds of years ; but the occurrence of salt 

 water in it did not appear to have been noticed till the deep pit of Moira was sunk 

 in 1832, by the late Mr. Ed. Mammatt, the author of ' Geological Pacts,' in 

 which work Dr. Ure's analysis is contained ; the discovery and manner in which the 

 water is found is fully described. With the above exception, and a brief notice of it 

 by Professors Hull and Green, in the ' Memoirs of the Geological Survey ' (Ashby 

 Coal-field), the author was unaware of any published reference to the water. Salt 

 water had also been discovered about two years ago in sinkings for coal through 

 New Red Sandstone and Permian rocks, at the village of Snarestone, near 

 Measham, by the Appleby Magna Colliery Company (Limited) ; and in this case it 

 was found in a bed or shale immediately overlying a seam of coal which, there was 

 every reason to conclude, occupied the horizon of the Main Coal of the Ashby field, 

 but which from local causes had here become attenuated and impoverished. In the 

 shale the author found Lingula mytiloides, but none of the other shells of which the 

 Coton Park series is composed. The upper part of the seam found here consisted 

 of brown cannel, the lower portion of bright bituminous coal, in every respect cor- 

 responding with the character of the Main Coal ; and the division of the seam, about 

 three inches in thickness, was made up in part of compressed plants and a stony 

 brown cannel containing several specimens of Palaocarabus Russellianus, Anthracosia, 

 sp., Beyrichia, sp., and spores of Lepidodvndron. The original discovery of the salt 

 water was in coal uncovered by any newer rocks than Drifts of the Boulder-clay 

 series ; but the two sinkings in question, together with an earlier sinking through 

 similar strata at Netherseal, placed on record the existence of the salt water in coal 

 where covered over by the naturally on-coming groups of rocks. 



It did not appear to the author that any explanation had been advanced to 

 account for the presence of the saline water in this isolated position. Most of the 

 other coal-seams of the field, both above and below the Main Coal, contained water, 

 but in no other instance was it in the least charged with saline matter. The author 

 showed that it could not have been derived from the saliferous marls, because 

 where the Bunter and Permian intervened, the water (of which they contained 

 enormous quantities) was perfectly fresh ; and had the Red Marls spread over the 



