CANNEL COAL OP THE WEST EIDING OF YOEKSHIEE. 61 



English Coal-measures), scales and teeth of Rhizodus, spines of 

 Orthacantlius and Gompsacantlius , and teeth of Dij)lodiis. 



The x^arallel between the Linton and Tiuglcy beds of Cannel Coal 

 is very remarkable ; they arc both of an isolated and local character 

 and associated with common coal, they appear to have had a similar 

 origin, and, most peculiarly, they are each the depository of a large 

 number of fossil fishes. I doubt very much if there is any other bed 

 in the British coal-fields which has yielded a greater number of speci- 

 mens of fish or even a greater number of new species in so small an 

 area as the Cannel at Tingiey ; and Dr. Newberry remarks of the Ame- 

 rican beds that, " on the whole, this must be looked upon as one of 

 the most interesting localities of vertebrate fossils known on this con- 

 tinent ; and it is even doubtful whether any other equals it in the 

 number of species or in their zoological and geological interest." 



The researches of my friend Dr. Anton Pritsch, of Prague, in 

 Bohemia, on the gas -coals of Kyfan and Kounova, during the past 

 few years, have resulted in the discovery of a remarkably large 

 number of Labyrinthodonts and fishes. The gas- or Cannel Coal of 

 Bohemia is situated much higher in the geological series than the 

 beds at Tingiey or Linton. It is only about 30 metres below the 

 red and green clays of the Permian formation ; and the gas-coals with 

 the sandstones and shales above them are considered as passage-beds 

 between the Carboniferous and Permian formations. The coal- 

 seam is from a metre to a metre and a half thick, and consists of 

 alternations of ordinary coal, Cannel or gas-coal, shales and clays. 

 About the middle of the bed is a Cannel Coal 30 centimetres thick, 

 and under that are thin slaty shales 25 centimetres in thickness. 

 In the Cannel the remains of fishes or Labyrinthodonts are rarely 

 found, but in the shale beneath they are very abundant. Separated 

 from the shale by a thin bed of clay, there is a thick bed of slaty 

 shale, which contains a thin layer of clay ironstone and also the 

 remains of fishes, &c. The slaty shales beneath the gas-coal appear 

 to be very similar to the " hubb " of the Cannel at Tingiey ; and it 

 may be worthy of note that it is in these bituminous shales in each 

 instance that the remains occur abuiidantly. There has been found 

 altogether a fauna of 87 species ; of these, 43 are Labyrinthodonts, 

 33 fishes, and 11 Arthropoda. The fishes occurring in greatest abun- 

 dance are : — CeratodusBarrandei^ Pr. (= Ctenodus ohliqmts, II.& A.) ; 

 Orthacantlius bohemicus, Fr. (=0. cylindricus, Ag.) ; Xenacanthus 

 { = Pleur acanthus, Ag.). There are thirteen species of Palceoniscus, 

 four of Ambly Icterus, two of Acanthodes, a Phyllolejns, a Gyrolej'is, 

 and a new genus, Sphcerolepis hounoviensis, Pr. The remaining 

 eight species are Ceratodus applanatus^ Pr., two species of Diplodus- 

 teeth (?), Xenacanthus Decheni, two species of undetermined genera, 

 and Hyhodus (?) and Petalodus (?) The most notable features of the 

 Cannel-Coal series of Bohemia are : — the great number of Labyrin- 

 thodonts, most of the species being hitherto unknown ; the absence 

 of Elasmobranchs of the type of Gyracanthus and Ctenacanthus, which. 

 in the Tingiey beds are of frequent occurrence ; and the preponde- 



