PROCEEDINGS 



OF 



THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



Vol. XL 1837—1838. No. 52. 



Nov. 1, 1837. — The Society assembled the first time, this even- 

 ing, for the Session. 



Alexander Crichton, Esq., of Charles-street, Grosvenor-square ; 

 Major-General Sir Patrick Ross, K.C.M.G., K.C.H., of Richmond, 

 Surrey ; John Slade, M.D., of Brock-street, Bath ; Philip Hardwick, 

 Esq., of Russell-square; Thomas Eyton, Esq., of Eyton, Shropshire; 

 and the Rev. Robert Wilson, of Ashwelthorpe Hall, near Wymond- 

 ham, were elected Fellows of this Society. 



A Letter "On Fossil Fishes in the Lancashire Coal Field," by 

 W. C. Williamson, Esq., Curator of the Manchester Natural History 

 Society, was read. 



The author first refers to his account of the Ardwick Limestone, pub- 

 lished in the 9th vol. of the Philosophical Magazine for 1836, (p. 241,), 

 where short descriptions are given of the ichthyolites which had been 

 then met wiih, consisting of scales of Megalichthys, scales and teeth 

 of Palaeoniscus, and coprolites. Mr. Williamson, in conjunction with 

 Professor Johnstone, has since come to the conclusion, that the bed 

 in which these remains occur, is entirely a coprolitic mass, the por- 

 tions preserved being such as would not be destroyed by the action 

 of the stomach. With the above remains, was also described a tooth 

 of Diplodus gihbosus, (Agassiz), numbers of which of various sizes 

 have been found at Bradford, near Manchester, in the roof of the great 

 mine, a bed of coal four feet thick, and one of the highest in the series 

 that is worked. The roofstone abounds with Entomostracous remains. 

 The fishes' teeth resemble one figured by Dr. Hibbert in his Memoir on 

 the Limestone at Burdie-house, and referred by him to Gyracanthus*. 

 The author has met with no traces of the thorny ray of this fish. 

 The coprolites contain 72-5 phosphate of lime, 12 '5 carbonate of 

 lime, 12'5 bitumen, 2*5 insoluble matter j and therefore resemble in 

 composition the analysis given by Dr. Hibbert f. 



The author, in examining, at Peel, near Worsley, the " Black and 

 White Mine," a coal 6 feet 6 inches thick, and about 1000 yards below 

 the Rodte Todte Liegende, found, in its black roofstone, remains of 

 Palceoniscus Egertonii. The fine blue colour of the scales forms a 

 curious characteristic. Two other forms of scales have been met with, 



* Edinb. Phil. Trans., vol. xiii. p. 218. t Ibid., p. 222. 



2 Y 



