Wright and Huxley— Fossil Reptiles from Ireland. 165 



I. — On a Collection of Fossils from the Jarrow Colliery, 

 Kilkenny, Ireland.' 



By E. Perceval "Weight, M.D., F.L.S., Professor of Zoology, Dublin University. 



"With a Description of the Vertebrate Eemains, by T. H. Huxley, F.E.S., 

 Professor of Natural History at the Eoyal School of Mines, Jermyn Street. 



THE Coal-producing portions of the counties of Kilkenny, 

 Queen's County, and County of Carlow, have been described 

 more than half a century ago by Sir Eichard Griffith, Bt., under the 

 name of " The Leinster Coal District." The general appearance of 

 the Coal country, vfhen viewed from a distance, is that of a very- 

 steep ridge of high land, running in a direct line for many miles, 

 rising from 800 to 1,000 feet above its base, and apparently flat on 

 the summit. It preserves this character on every side ; but when 

 viewed from the eminence itself, it resembles a great barren table- 

 land, rising precipitately above a flat and highly cultivated 

 country.2 



The portion of this district with which we are more immediately 

 concerned, is the high table-land of Castle Comer, which is about 

 1,000 feet over the sea-level. The whole of this table-land is 

 formed by a series of dark, sometimes black, shales, interstratified 

 with sandstones and flagstones of various shades of gray, which 

 series, from its occasionally containing beds of Coal, is spoken of 

 collectively as " The Coal Measures." 



The Coal Measures of this district have a more or less basin-shaped 

 arrangement, resting on the Upper Limestone, beneath which is the 

 calp or Middle Limestone, and then the Lower Limestone resting 

 on the Granite. The depth of the Limestone in the centre of the 

 district is about 1,850 feet, or more than a thousand feet below the 

 level of the sea, while on the outer slopes of the table-land it rises 

 to an elevation of some 250 feet above the sea-level. 



The black shales generally contain fossils belonging to such 

 genera as Aviculopecten, EuompJialus, Goniatites, Bellerophon, etc. ; but 

 the beds interstratified with the Coal are found to contain plants be- 

 longing to Lepidodendron, Calamites, Sigillaria, Pecopteris, SpJienopteris, 

 etc., etc. Several new species of these latter genera, as well as two 

 new species of the genus BelUnurus, have been lately described by 

 Mr. W. H. Baily,^ from the coal of this district. 



In one of these colKeries, that of Jarrow, the Coal is worked at a 

 depth of about 210 feet beneath the surface. The roof of the pit is 

 formed of clay slate, immediately under which is a seam of inferior 



1 Abstract read before the Royal Irish Academy, on Monday, 8th January, 1866. 

 The paper will be published in Vol. xxiv. of their Transactions, with a series of plates, 

 by ilr. DiNKEL. 



2 Vide Report on the Leinster Coal District, by Richard Grieeith, Dublin, 

 1814, p. 2. 



8 Vide Explanation of Sheet 137 of the Maps of the Geological Survey of Ireland, 

 p. 14. 



