CA]S^Is'EL COAL OP THE WEST BIDING OF TOEKSHIRE. 59 



more quickly than tlie leaves of the plants, but at the same 

 time carrying down with it a large percentage of carbonaceous 

 substances. In some parts the lake appears to have become filled 

 up or elevated above the water-level ; and seat-earth filled with 

 Stigmarian rootlets was the result. Prom the seat-earth grew 

 plants whose remains have formed thin bands of ordinary coal. 

 After the accumulation of the decaying vegetable matter, sometimes 

 deposited in water, and forming Cannel or gas-coal, at others on 

 land, and resulting in thin beds of ordinary coal, the whole was 

 submerged beneath the water, and an average of from one to two feet 

 of black bituminous mud, containing few traces of animal exuviae, 

 except an occasional laj'cr of Entomostraca, was deposited. Above 

 the black shale there is a light-grey-coloured stratum, about 10 

 inches to a foot thick, which is almost or entirely composed of the 

 shells of Anthracosice, Countless numbers of the shells of these 

 mollusks occur; they are always found crushed. They were the 

 shells of animals such as would be found at the present time inhabi- 

 ting and luxuriating in semistagnant pools — weak and thin, sufii- 

 cient to serve for the protection of the mollusk in a mass of soft 

 mud in a quiet inland lake, but totally inadequate for its protection 

 if we imagine them to have lived in a flowing river or on the wave- 

 beaten shores of an old sea. Above the shell-bed are about 20 

 feet of bluish-white shales containing several layers of ironstone 

 nodules. Shells of Anthracosia are common in the ironstone, but 

 do not occur in the shale. All these facts point to one issue — that 

 we have in these beds an example of an inland lake of freshwater 

 origin. This is a most important conclusion when we come to 

 consider the variety of fish-remains which have been obtained from 

 these strata. 



The fossil fish are found in greatest abundance at Tingley ; where 

 the coal has been worked elsewhere, fish-remains are either quite 

 absent or occur with great rarity. At Tingley they are found in 

 largest numbers between the Cannel Coal and " Hubb ;" many 

 beautiful examples, however, have been obtained from all parts of 

 the Cannel Coal, and they not unfrequently occur in the " Hubb." 

 The following is a list of the fishes which I have hitherto been able 

 to identify : — 



Coelacanthus lepturus, Agass. 

 Ctenodus elegans (tooth), H. ^- A. 

 Megalichthys Hibberti, Agass. 

 Ehizodopsis, sp. ? 

 Palaeoiiiscus, sp. ? 

 G-yracanthus formosus, Agass. 

 Ctenacanthus hybodoides, Egerton, 

 Diplodus gibbosus, Agass. 

 Cteiioptycbius pectinatus, Agass. 

 Helodus simplex, Agass. 

 Ostracacantbus dilatatus, Davis (gen. 



et sp. nov.). 

 Compsacanthus triangularis (sp. noy,), 



Davis. 



major, Davis (sp. nov.). 



Cladodus-teeth. 

 Petalodus. 



Rhizodus-scales. 



Ctenodus, sp. ?, ribs and bones. 



Pleuracantbus laeyissimus, Agass. 



erectus, Davis. 



pulcbellus, Davis. 



alternidentatus, Davis. 



alatus, Davis. 



robustus, Davis. 



(Ortbacanthus) cylindricus, sp, 



ined. Agass., Davis. 

 Spirorbis carbonarius. 

 Entomostraca. 

 Julus ? 



Anthracosia (Unio). 

 Labyrinthodont (?) ribs, teetli, and 



other bones. 



