208 Bofe— On Coal and Cannel. 



Acidaspis, n. sp, 

 FlMcops, sp. 

 Petraia elongata 

 Heliolites in terstinctus 

 Pterinea tenuistriata 



Pterinea, sp. 

 Cardiola interrupta 

 Orthoceras, sp. like tenuicinctum 

 Graptolites priodon 



and the Ceratiocaris now described by Mr. Woodward. 



The general character of the rock in the upper part (e) is very 

 similar to that in (c) and (d), but I was unable to procure many 

 fossils except a Graptolite, probably G. priodon, and an Orthoceras, 

 like that found all through the series. 



On the whole, I find that the lithological character of the rock is 

 very similar throughout, except that at the bottom the tough grey- 

 wacke passes into dark blue flags, and towards the top there is more 

 of the roughly cleaved dull dark grey sandstone which alternates 

 with the harder beds all through. 



Prof. Eamsay at once pointed out the general resemblance of these 

 beds to the Denbighshire grits, and the fossils seem to bear out this 

 suggestion. 



The micaceous flags of Benson Knot, from which the specimens of 

 the carapace of Ceratiocaris in the British Museum were obtained, 

 belong to what are locally called Kirkby Moor Flags — i.e. Upper 

 Ludlow — and are separated from the beds of Casterton Fell by an 

 enormous series, the exact position and thickness of which I shall 

 not be able to determine until I have worked much further north 

 into a clearer country. 



VI. — Note on Coal and Cannel. 

 By Jno. Eofe, F.G.S. 



ALTHOUGH many theories have been suggested to account for 

 the formation of coal-beds, all of which agree in the vegetable 

 origin of the coal itself, none have yet appeared which meet many of the 

 difficulties which surround the subject of their origin, and probably 

 they have been deposited under so many varying conditions that no one 

 supposition would account for the diff'erence in the constituents of the 

 mineral, or for the mode of its formation in different localities. From 

 the )S%man'a found in the underclay, in the great majority of cases, it 

 seems fair to assume that the vegetation from which the coal above 

 it was formed, grew where the coal is found, and there are other 

 reasons for coming to the same conclusion in these cases, but in some 

 places, where the underclay is wanting, this may be doubtful. 



There can, however, be but little doubt that coal and cannel must 

 have been deposited under different circumstances, and yet in some 

 places they are found interstratified and in contact. 



This subject was named at the meeting of the British Association 

 at Birmingham, when one of the speakers suggested that the vegetable 

 matter of the cannel was so far decayed as to be reduced to a jDulp, 

 like thoroughly rotted peat, which gave the cannel its homogeneous 

 structure, whilst that from which the coal was formed was less de- 



