272 Reports and Proceedings. 



Lepidostrohus Brownii of Carrutliers. We req-uired a great deal more 

 evidence of the fructification of coal-plants than we at present pos- 

 sessed to enable us thoroughly to understand the true nature of the 

 vegetables of the Carboniferous epoch. He vs^ished all the members 

 who devoted attention to the collection of coal-plants to assist him 

 by all the means in their power in finding cones united to branches 

 and cones with sporangia and spores in situ. These were the most 

 valuable specimens which they could bring before the society ; and it 

 was his opinion that they only requked to be diligently searched for 

 in order to be found. 



Mr. W. E. Ban', F.G.S. read a paper on " A Fossil Shell from the 

 Oil-wells of Canada." He said there were certain indications of 

 large reservoirs of petroleum in certain portions of the earth's sur- 

 face. He produced specimens of shells which he had received from 

 Mr. W. L. Eskrigge. the ex-Mayor of Stockport, and which that 

 gentleman had collected. The place from which the shells had been 

 brought was the village of Oil-springs, in the township of Ennis- 

 Mllen in Canada. They were picked up from the stifi" blue clay by 

 Mr. Eskrigge, having been brought up in his presence by the boring 

 tools. He had come to the conclusion that the fossils themselves 

 were truly Carboniferous, and were the same as our Spirifera striata, 

 only found in this country in the Carboniferous limestone. The oil 

 was foimd in the underlying rocks at diiferent depths, but whatever 

 character the rock might have, it was certain it had nothing to do 

 with the origin of the oil it contained, but rather that it had come 

 from some extraneous source, and was only found in the crevices and 

 cracks with which the rock was permeated. These cracks being 

 better filled, and the yield being more abundant near the surface 

 than deeper, seemed to point to the supply coming from above. 

 He suggested that the origin of the oil was from the now overlying 

 clay which, from its imbedded remains, must have been a member of 

 the Carboniferous series ; it most probably was originally a shale 

 similar in character to the bituminous shales so well known in our 

 Coal-measures, or a band of bituminous matter as found in the 

 Mountain Limestone, but he was the more inclined to think that it 

 was originally a shale from the dark blue clay residue in which these 

 shells are deposited — that by a decomposing process, the bituminous 

 matter was distilled into an oil, and filled up the cracks of the under- 

 lying rocks, forming the reservoirs from which modern energy and 

 skill are now, for the first time, bringing it to light. 



An interesting discussion followed, in the course of which the 

 Chairman said that many years ago he read a paper on the petroleum 

 oil formed from the decomposition of peat going on at Downholland. 

 Unfortunately the supply was not great, but the quality was unde- 

 niable. More than 150 years ago there were petroleum springs at 

 Wigan and Coalbrookdale in the pitch and flint coal. There was no 

 difficulty in accounting for it when found in coal, the decomposition 

 distilling it to oil. Petroleum abounded in India and China, where 

 it was used as a cure for rheumatic pains. The Chinese made use 

 of it for burning lamps. The Americans found out its use in the 



