562 J. W. KIEKBT ON MAEINE FOSSILS IN THE 



have not seen any deposits that can be described as marine from 

 their organic remains. These strata consist of repeated alternations 

 of white, yellow, and pnrplish sandstones, and grey, purplish, and 

 black shales, fireclays, and occasionally marls, with ironstone in 

 bands and nodules. Several of the sandstones form beds from 30 

 to 100 feet thick ; and in one or two cases they become coarse and 

 gritty and full of quartz pebbles ; they are also characterized by 

 false-bedding, and many of them are beautifully rippled. 



Intercalated in this mass of strata are eighteen or more thin 

 coals, from 3 inches to a foot in thickness, each with its underclay 

 full of Stigmarian rootlets ; and at various horizons there are beds 

 of limestone, some of which are highly siliceous, and all more or 

 less impure. 



The remains of plants are scattered pretty generally through the 

 argillaceous beds of these strata, though often in very imperfect 

 condition. Of the determinable forms, Lepidodendron and Spheno- 

 pteris affinis are by far the most common ; a species of Ccdamites 

 occurs rarely ; and some of the shales overlying, the thin coals are 

 full of the flattened and coarsely furrowed trunks and short upright 

 stools of large trees. The scales and teeth of small Ganoid fishes 

 are found in various beds ; the remains of Bhizodus Hibherti and 

 other large fishes are of rarer occurrence. A few species of 

 Ostracoda are abundant at certain horizons, Leperditia Olceni, var. 

 scotohurdigalensis, being the most characteristic. The following 

 are the most notable fossiliferous zones in this section of strata : — 



At 828 feet there is a two-feet bed of shale and blackband iron- 

 stone containing AniJiracomya scotica, Leperditia Okeni, var. 

 scotoburdigalensis^ Carhonia fahulina^ C. HunJciniana, and Lepido- 

 dendron sp. ,' . 



At 923 feet, in a grey shale with ironstone bands, immediately 

 overlying a curious pseudo-brecciated limestone, there are found the 

 following species : — Rhizodus Hihherti *, Otenacanthus sp., Leper- 

 ditia Okeni, var. scotohurdigalensis *, Lepidophyllum, Sphenopteris 

 affinis, and other plant-remains. The species with asterisks are 

 exceedingly abundant in this bed ; the Leperditia is also equally 

 prevalent in a stratum of dark shale about ten feet below. 



At rather over 2100 feet, behind the east pier of Pittenweem 

 Harbour, there is a bed of dark calcareous shale full of the 

 remains of a curious, linear, polyzoiform plant, which is probably a 

 fucoid. 



A little below, at 2120 feet, the scales of Bhizodus Hihherti again 

 occur in black shale, along with the remains of Bliadiniclithys 

 hrevis ?, Traquair, and Ctenodus sp. 



Then, at the depth of 2280 feet, one of the most important marine 

 zones of the series comes into section. This deposit, which the 

 Eev. Thomas Brown first described, consists of about 20 feet of dark 

 shale, with layers of ironstone nodules and two or more thin bands 

 of limestone. Directly beneath it is a twelve-inch seam of coal, 

 resting on a thin shale or fireclay fuU of Stigmarian rootlets ; it is 

 well exposed in the clifi's and between tide-marks, a little to the 



