Reports and Proceedings. 369 
boniferous limestones and sandstones, with interlaminary shales, 
underlain by tufa, containing angular fragments of sandstone. At 
the foot of the cliff, numerous blocks of the limestone strew the bed 
and banks of the stream. The Members spent some time here, and 
found numerous fossils in these and in the thin bands of limestone 
from the base of the Coal-measures on the opposite bank. The 
fossils found here comprise Corals, Polypes, Brachiopods, Lamelli- 
branchiates, Gasteropods, Fish, &c., many of which are rare. Mr. 
Thomson next led the party to the dyke formerly referred to, and 
which crosses the Rye Water diagonally : it is a compact greenstone, 
and he drew attention to its effect upon the limestone on its western 
side, which it had altered from a dark greyish blue into a dull light- 
brown. ‘This, where exposed, has yielded to atmospheric influences, 
leaving in many parts the fossils, consisting of several species of 
Corals, and ever the slender form of Lithostrontium junceum, Milne- 
Edwards, projecting an inch above the surface of the weathered 
rock. On the east side of the dyke—here 40 feet broad—the 
section in the bed of the stream shows tufa, overlain by shale, in 
the upper portion of which was found Orthis Michelini in great 
abundance : overlying the shale there is a thick band of limestone, 
above which occur the thin layers of limestone already men- 
tioned, interlaminated with calcareous shales, in which numerous 
fine fossils were found. ‘These shales again are overlain by thick 
beds of bituminous shales and impure coal, and the whole are capped 
by a thin bed of sandstone, the section altogether showing here 
somewhere about 150 feet in thickness. Mr. Thomson mentioned 
that he had seen sections of the same strata in Arran, Ayrshire, 
Lanarkshire, Linlithgowshire, and along the coast of Northumber- 
land ; and that similar thin beds of limestone and shale were common 
to them all, and their characteristic fauna are the same. 
The Members next visited a limestone-quarry on the farm of Bed- 
lay, where some good fossils were got, and where an hour or two 
could have been well spent, had time permitted. From this Mr. 
Thomson led them southwards across the district, pointing out 
by the way the effect of the numerous dykes upon its physical 
features, the undulating aspect of which is characteristic of the 
Ayrshire Coal-field, from its north-western extremity to Muirkirk on 
its south-eastern boundary. Following the course of the trap-dyke 
above described to a beautiful amphitheatre on the Calf Water, it 
was again seen there ejected through the shales and upper limestone 
of the district. From this point the stream was followed down to 
the Lixu-spout, where it has cut its way through the lime and sand- 
stones to a depth of not less than 150 feet; below the water- 
fall there has been a downthrow of the strata, leaving a vertical 
wall of bare lime and sandstone-rocks, over which the water 
falls. The stream has here also scooped out another amphitheatre, 
in the shady depths of which the party rested. 
Norwicu GroioeicaL Society.—At the last Monthly Meeting of 
this Society, the first paper read was On a Section in the Drifts at 
VOL. II.—NO. XIV. BB 
