The North Stafford Coalfield. 281 



■the Bidclnlpli Trough, were published in 1866 in the memoir on 

 the Geology of Stockport, Macclesfield, Congleton, and Leek, by 

 Professor Hull and Professor Green. 



The re-survey on the six inch scale was commenced in 1898 

 and completed in 1901, The Pottery Coalfield was surveyed by 

 Messrs. W. Gibson and C. B. Wedd, and the Cheadle Coalfield 

 by Mr. George Barrow.^ The area is included in the New Series 

 one inch Sheets 110, 123, 124. Drift and Solid Editions of 

 Sheet 123, with an explanatory memoir, were published in 1902. 

 A description of the Cheadle Coalfield, with an accompanying 

 geological map (part of Sheet 124), was published in 1903.^ 

 A sheet of Vertical Sections, giving sections of shafts in the Pottery 

 Coalfield, was published in 1901. Sheet 110, which includes a small 

 portion of the Pottery Coalfield, has been prepared for publication ; 

 while thirty-five quarter-sheets on the six inch scale, including the 

 whole of the ground described in this memoir, were published with 

 geological lines in 1904. 



Although this volume contains the detailed descriptions by each 

 geologist of the area surveyed by himself, it has been largely 

 written and edited by Mr. Walcot Gibson, who personally carried 

 out the greater part of the field-work. In the Palgeontological 

 portion, the Survey fortunately obtained the assistance of Mr. John 

 Ward, of Longton, whose knowledge of the district extends over 

 nearly fifty years. Mr. Ward has now contributed copious lists 

 of fossils, together with a palseontological statement in reference 

 to them, the result of his long-continued researches in the North 

 Stafford Coalfields. In the preparation of these lists Mr. Ward has 

 been greatly indebted to Dr. R. H. Traquair, F.R.S., and Dr. A. 

 Smith Woodward, F.R.S. , for recording the Fossil Fishes ; to Mr. R. 

 Kidston, F.R.S., for the Plants ; and to Dr. Wheelton Hind for 

 cataloguing the Lamellibranchs, and in the preparation of the lists 

 of Invertebrata generally. Mr. J. T. Stobbs and many other local 

 geologists have given much assistance to the re-survey of the Coal- 

 measures, and added greatly to the value of the present memoir. 



Four of the plates, accompanying the lists of fossils, illustrate 

 the Fishes of the Stafi'ordshire Coalfield, and two are devoted to the 

 Lamellibranchia described by Dr. Wheelton Hind in the Palgeonto- 

 graphical Society's volumes. 



In the account of the Carboniferous rocks it has been found 

 advisable to adopt purely descriptive terms for the various sub- 

 divisions. Though, as is well known, the vertical distribution of 

 both plants and fishes points to a twofold division of the Carboniferous 

 rocks, the exact position and nature of the boundary-line has not 

 yet been determined for North Stafi'ordshire. For the old term 

 ' Yoredale Beds ' the term ' Pendleside Series,' introduced by 

 Dr. Wheelton Hind and Mr. J. Allen Howe, seems preferable, 

 since it only implies a correlation with similar beds occupying 

 the same stratigraphical position on Pendle Hill in Lancashire. 



1 Reviewed in Geol. Mag. for 1903, pp. 471, 473. 



