70 J. S)nitJi — IT. Silurian Entomosiraca. 



IV. — Notes on a Collection of Bivalved Entomostraca and 



OTHER MiCROZOA FROM THE UpPER - SiLURIAN StRATA OP THE 



Shropshire District. 



By J. Smith, Esq., of Kilwinning. 



With a Provisional List of Species, by Prof. T. Eupert Jones, F.E.S., 



President Gaol. Assoc. 



Introduction. 



E. HAEVEY B. HOLE, F.G.S., has obtained many very perfect 

 Silurian Entomostraca, and the late Lieutenant Heniy Adrian 

 "VVyatt-Edgell got some good specimens from the Border Counties ; 

 and indeed Dr. Holl made an extensive and valuable collection 

 from the limestones and shales of the neighbourhood of Malvern ; 

 x\ov has his collection been fully described and illustrated as yet, 

 although several selected forms have been published in the " Annals 

 of Natural History," for December, 1865, and March, 1869. The 

 remarkably rich collection of Silurian Entomostraca, however, 

 brought together by Mr. J. Smith, of Kilwinning, contains some of 

 the finest specimens yet seen; and the following notes on the places 

 where they were obtained, and a list of the species (although 

 provisional only, and not fully worked out), must be of interest, and 

 l^robably of some practical value both to the geologists of Shropshire 

 and to paleeontologists in general. — T. E. Jones. 



I. — Method of Preparalion and Search. 



The plan taken in searching the following localities for Entomo- 

 straca and other Microzoa was to collect on the shale-banks, where 

 that material was thoroughly decomposed, in natural sections and 

 old quarries, always lifting some of the larger fossils along with the 

 decomposed shale. After collecting ten or twelve pounds weight of 

 the shale, all over the spoil-banks or the section, so as to get a fair 

 average sample, it was put into a small riddle, with \ inch mesh, 

 and washed in the nearest water into a buckram bag, three feet long 

 by ten inches wide, the larger fossils remaining in the riddle. The 

 shale was then further washed in the bag until most of the fine mud 

 (decomposed shale) had floated away through the meshes of the 

 buckram. After taking this home (reduced now in weight to a few 

 ounces), it was first dried, then boiled in water for half an hour, and 

 then washed in a basin, clean water being added until all the fine 

 mud had floated away. In the process of washing, care was taken 

 only to pour the water on the shale, never to rub it with the hands, 

 as this treatment is sure to break delicate fossils, such as Sponge- 

 spicules, Conodonts, etc. The washed material, having been dried, 

 was successively passed through four fine sieves, from -iTj-th to -oVth 

 of an inch in the mesh. The coarser material was searched with the 

 naked eye, and the finer under the microscope. 



II. — The Localities of the Upper- Silurian Entomostraca and other 



Microzoa. 



1. Walsall.— This gathering was taken at Blue Holes, near the 



