394 MESSES. BALDWIN AND SUTCLIFFE ON 1 [Nov. I904, 



29. Eoscorpius sparthensis, sp. nov., from the Middle Coal- 

 Measuees of Lancashire. By Walter Baldwin, Esq., F.G.S., 

 and William Henry Seicliffe, Esq., F.G.S. (Bead April 

 27th, 1904.) 



Contents. 



Page 



I. Locality and Horizon of the Type-Specimen 394 



II. Description of the Type-Specimen 395 



III. Comparison with other Species 397 



IV. Geological Bearing of the Discovery 398 



I. Locality and Horizon of the Type-Stecimen. 



If reference be made to Sheet 88 of the Geological-Survey Map of 

 Great Britain, it will be seen that a portion of the Middle Coal- 

 Measures is repeatedly thrown in, between Bochdale and Heyw T ood, 

 by several large faults, so as to form two isolated patches and two 

 large promontories jutting out northward from the general range of 

 the Middle Coal-Measures. About half a mile to the south-west 

 of Bochdale Town-Hall there is, at an elevation of 400 feet 

 above Ordnance-datum, an isolated eminence at Sparth Bottoms, 

 which is fast disappearing, as the shale is being excavated for the 

 purpose of making bricks. 



This eminence is situated almost in the centre of one of the 

 before-mentioned promontories. At this point several beds of 

 greyish-blue shale, containing clay-ironstone nodules, crop out ; 

 and there is also a bed a few inches thick, with nodules containing 

 for the most part well-preserved remains of Carhonicola acuta. 

 These beds dip in a south-westerly direction. The Carhonicola-hed 

 may perhaps be taken as a fairly-constant horizon above the Boyley 

 or Arley-Mine seam, since we have found it in Dawson's Wood, about 

 a mile distant, and have calculated that it occurs about 135 feet 

 above the Boyley-Mine coal-seam. 



These beds have yielded remains of well-preserved ferns, 

 CalamarieoB, 1 Sigillarice, 2 and fine specimens of Merostomata, both 

 Prestwichia rotundata 3 and Belinurus belhdus 4 have been found 

 here. A nodule which was found, in October of last year, about 

 8 feet above the Carbonicola-bed has added a new species to the 

 list of Carboniferous scorpions. 



1 D. H. Scott, « Studies in Fossil Botany ' 1900, p. 35. 



2 S. Sidney Piatt, ' Fossil Trees found at Sparth Bottoms, Rochdale ' Trans. 

 Bochdale Lit. & Sci. Soc. vol. iii (1891-1892). 



* Trans. Manch. Geol. Soc. vol. xxrii (1902) p. 149. 

 4 Ibid. vol. xxvii i(1903) p. 198. 



