1862.] BINNEY COAL-MEASURES, AYRSHIRE. 437 



through the upper red and yellow sandstones, has anything beyond 

 mere fragments of bones and scales of fishes as yet been found, these 

 generally belonging to Holoptychius nohilissimus. Whether these 

 upper yellow sandstones shall hereafter be classed as Upper Old Eed, 

 the lower beds of the Coal-measures, or as passage-beds, it appears 

 to me that, although they are conformably overlain by, and very 

 much resemble in lithological character, the white Carboniferous 

 sandstones, yet a very great change of conditions must have occurred 

 between their times of deposit. The character of the organic re- 

 mains in these is so marked, and so different in the two, that even 

 want of conformity could scarcely more exactly define the boundary 

 between them. Although, all through the upper red and yellow 

 sandstones, scales and other fragmentary remains of fishes are abun- 

 dant, yet in no instance have I ever been able to detect any organism 

 showing decidedly vegetable structure ; and in the overlying Car- 

 boniferous sandstones, while vegetable remains are in great abun- 

 dance (very perfect specimens of Sphenopteris, Lepidodendron, and 

 other Coal-plants being found in almost every layer), no fragments 

 of any Pish, so far as I know, have yet been found. Another almost 

 anomalous peculiarity may be noticed, namely, that while Coprolites 

 are common in these Carboniferous sandstones, I have never yet de- 

 tected any in the fish-beds of Dura Den. I may add, that where- 

 ever Fishes are found in the Forfarshire flagstones, there Coprolites 

 are in abundance. 



6. On some Upper Coal-meastjres, containing a bed of Limestone, at 



Catrine in Ayrshire. By E. W. Binney, Esq., F.B,.S., F.G.S. 

 Some years since the writer described, in a short communication read 

 before the Society and printed in the Quarterly Journal*, the breccia 

 at Ballochmoyle and the red and purple strata found near Catrine 

 in Ayrshu-e. As to the latter, he expressed no opinion whether or 

 not they were Permian or Carboniferous, evidence being then wanted 

 to decide that question ; but his impression was that they were Car- 

 boniferous strata much higher in the series than any which had yet 

 been described in Scotland. A visit to the locality a few days since 

 enabled him to establish beyond doubt that the strata at Balloch- 

 moyle Braes, Catrine, and Sorn represent a coal-field as high as any 

 in the English series, — in fact, one similar to those at Ardwick, near 

 Manchester; Uf&ngton and Leebotwood, near Shrewsbury; Buxterby, 

 near J^uneaton ; and Lane-End, Potteries. Mr. Ralph Moore, in his 

 valuable sections of the Scottish coal-fields, gives the Ayrshire strata 

 as follows : — 



fathoms. 



Upper Coal-series 313 



Limestone series 52 



Lower Coal-series 200t 



* Quart. Joum. Greol. Soc. vol. xii. p. 138. 



t " Papers on the Blackband Ironstone of the Edinburgh and East Lothian 

 Coal-field, and the advantages to be derived from their development, read before 



2g2 



