n6 



[Proc. B.N.F.C, 



where no person with the least knowledge of geology would ever 

 have thought of trying ; as the presence of these fossils indicates 

 that these beds belong to a lowei horizon than that in which coal 

 occurs. He stated that the existence of graptolites in the district 

 had long been known to many members of the Club, but that 

 the systematic examination of them had not been undertaken by 

 anyone until the Geological Survey commenced operations in this 

 locality. In its "Memoirs," published in 187 1, a number 

 of species are given, mostly from the neighbourhood of Donagha- 

 dee, which is by far the richest locality yet known in the North of 

 Ireland. The results of the reader's own labours were then given, 

 which are very encouraging, embracing, as they do, the finding of 

 twelve species of graptolitidse, and three crustaceans. The dis- 

 covery of the latter is a most important one, this being the first re- 

 cord of the finding of any crustacean remains in this large Silurian 

 area. After a comprehensive description of the physiological cha- 

 racter of the graptolites, illustrated by a comparison with that of 

 their nearest living representatives — sertularian hydroids — the reader 

 went on to give an exhaustive synopsis of the various genera into 

 which this fossil group of graptolites is divided. This part of the 

 paper was made very interesting by a series of large diagrams, il- 

 lustrating all the species found in our district, and the most marked 

 genera of the typical Silurian rocks in Wales. The various condi- 

 tions under which the fossils occur were clearly given. Mr. Swan- 

 ston then read a very interesting and suggestive letter which he 

 had received from Charles Lapworth, Esq., F.G.S., Galashiels, an 

 authority on this special department of palaeontology, to whom he 

 had submitted his specimens for examination. That gentleman 

 sums up the result of his examination as follows : — " The beds of 

 black shale, containing this peculiar grouping of forms, must be of 

 middle Silurian age, perhaps Lower Llandovery. They form, in all 

 . probability, merely the westerly continuation of one of the black 

 shale bands so common in the Silurians of the South of Scotland. 

 They answer exactly to some of the central beds of the Birkhill 

 shales, or the highest subdivisions of the Moffat group, and also re- 



