43 6 [Proc. B.N.F.C, 



to the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, and has been 

 determined by Mr. Lang to be Isaslraea endothecata (Duncan). 

 This Coral has never been recorded from Ireland before, and is 

 a noteworthy addition to our list of the Liassic fauna. 



Mr. S. A. Bennett, B.A., B.Sc, then proceeded to deliver 

 an extremely interesting lecture on "The Lower Carboniferous 

 Rocks of the North Stafford Coalfield," in which he said — 

 The Geology of this part of England is determined almost 

 entirely by the Pennine system of folding, due to earth movements 

 which took place in pre-Triassic times. The sub-carboniferous 

 floor has never been reached in the North Stafford Coalfield, 

 consequently this interesting subject can only be approached 

 in the light of our knowledge of the strata underlying the neigh- 

 bouring coalfields of Leicester, South Stafford, and North Wales. 

 On the west the whole of the Carboniferous series is cut off 

 by the great bed rock fault, which runs, roughly speaking, in 

 a N.N.E. and S.S.W. direction, bringing successively higher 

 strata of the Trias against successively lower strata of the 

 Carboniferous system as we proceed north. The difference in 

 lithological character of the four members of the series — the 

 massive limestone, the Pendleside shales, the millstone grits, and 

 the actual coal measures — clearly indicates a transition from 

 deep water to shallow water or land surface conditions, and the 

 succession of life in these rocks leads to the same conclusion. 

 The periclinal dome of Carboniferous limestone at Astbury, on 

 the western border of the coalfield, is exceedingly interesting, 

 containing as it does beds of igneous origin, these being the only 

 examples of contemporaneous volcanic action on the western side 

 of the Pennine axis. In addition to different species of Corals — 

 specimens of which were shown — the following Brachiopods occur : 

 Orthis resupinata, Productus longispinus, P. semireticulatus, and 

 Spirifera glabra, all of which have been noted from the Castle Espie 

 limestone in Co. Down. The passage beds into the Pendleside series 

 contain the important zone fossil Prolecanites compressus and the 



