Br. Wheelton Hind— The Yoredale Series. 207 



shells do not belong to the fauna contained in the limestones. At 

 Coalbi'ookdale Spirifer bisulcatus and Prodiictus scabriculus occur 

 with other marine shells in the Penueystone Ironstone of the Coal- 

 measures, which, however, do not occur in the Carboniferous 

 Limestone. 



In a bed of shale containing calcareous bullions, situated above 

 a gannister-like sandstone, some little distance below the third bed 

 of Millstone Grit on Congleton Edge, is a fairly rich fauna, con- 

 taining, amongst others, Productns (four species), Spirifer, Athyris, 

 Orthis, Streptorhjnchus, Chonetes, Terebratula, Discina, and LinguJa, 

 all of which are found in the limestone, bat are absent in all the 

 intervening beds. It is difficult to arrive at any satisfactory con- 

 clusion as to the whereabouts of this Carbonifei-ous sea in whicli 

 the limestone fauna survived, and it is questionable if a discussion 

 of the matter would be productive of any benefit. 



The proper fauna of the beds between the Millstone Grits and 

 the Carboniferous Limestone in the Yorkshire-Derbyshire area is 

 a very typical one, though not peculiar, in any particular, to this 

 horizon ; in fact, it is identical with the fauna which is found in 

 the marine beds of the Gannister Series of the Lower Coal-measures. 

 The evidence for this fact has been lately much increased by the 

 collections of Messrs. Holroyd and Barnes, in the beds exposed 

 below the Millstone Grits in the valleys round Marsden and 

 Saddleworth, and from the beds passed through in the London and 

 North-Western Railway tunnel under Standedge Moor. I have 

 been over the ground with these gentlemen, and have had the 

 opportunity of gathering the fossils myself as well as of studying the 

 fine series that they have collected during the last few years. The 

 fauna is, taken as a whole, very similar to that which has always been 

 considered characteristic of the Gannister Series of Lancashire, several 

 species being identical with those found in the nodules of the roof 

 of the Bullion Coal, Yery few species, indeed, if any, are common 

 to it and the Mountain Limestone fauna ; but the three genera 

 Carbonicola, Anthracomya, and Naiadites, which are so frequent in 

 the Coal-measures, are all represented, the former by at least four 

 well-marked species ; and the shells themselves cannot be in any 

 way distinguished from those occurring in the Coal-measures. It 

 may be therefore emphatically stated, that the fauna of the shales 

 which are situated below the Millstone Grit in South Yorkshire 

 is totally distinct from that which characterizes the shales and 

 limestones of Wensleydale. 



Though not known to be so rich in species, the shales of Derby- 

 shire and North Stafibrd shire contain a similar fauna, several species 

 of Goniatites, amongst which G. reticidalus is conspicuous, Avicido- 

 pecten papyraceus, and Fosidoniella loivis occurring at several horizons. 

 In Cheshire, however, on Congleton Edge, situated some 200 feet 

 below the base of the Millstone Grit, here represented by the 

 third, Eivelin or Roaches grit, is a bed of black shales in which 

 are layers of calcareous nodules, which overlies a hard, fine, 

 gannister-like quartzose rook. These concretions contain a rich 



