28 FOSSIL ESTHERLE. 



ESTHERIA STRIATA, Var. BlNNEY/YNA. PL I, figS. 8 10. 



Height of valve, ^ incn ) r> t * i o i i •» 



, 12 (-Proportion 7 to 12, or 1 : If — . 



Length 1 „ ) 



Carapace-valves oblong ; upper and lower margins nearly parallel ; ends slightly 

 rounded ; three times as large as the other varieties ; attaining a length of one inch. The 

 largest recent Estheria that I know {E. Melitensis) is scarcely more than half an inch 

 long. 



In black, laminated, carbonaceous shale : specimens numerous on the planes of bedding. 

 Found by Mr. E. W. Binney, at an ironstone-pit at Lowndsley Green, near Chesterfield, 

 Derbyshire. This Estherian shale lies between the Winn-Moor Coal, below, and the 

 Black Shale or Silkstone Bed above, a distance of about 70 yards. 



To illustrate the geological position of the English specimens of Estheria striata, Mr. 

 Binney has supplied me with a section of the strata of the lower part of the Middle, and 

 the whole of the Lower Coal-measures of Lancashire. In a paper on the Permian beds of 

 the North-west of England, 1 he has described all the divisions of the Lancashire Coal- 

 field, Upper, Middle, and Lower ; and a still more detailed account of the last may be 

 found in another paper by him, on some Trails and Holes in some of the Carboniferous 

 strata, and on Microconchus carbonarius? 



" The following section of the Coal-measures of Lancashire, in a descending order, 

 commences with the strata just above the 'Wigan Cannel,' a 'mine' about 220 yards 

 above the ' Arley Mine ' of Wigan, or ' Silkstone Coal ' of Yorkshire, the lowest coal of 

 the Middle Field. 



Yds. ft. in. 



" Dark-grey shale 2 3 Contains Megaphyton distans, TJlodendron majus, 



and other coal-plants. 

 The basses and cannels contain, in addition to 

 Estheria, fishes of the genera Megalichthys, 

 Rhizodus, Holoptychius, Ccelacanthus, and 

 Palceoniscus, as well as remains of numerous 

 Placoid fishes, generally found associated 

 in Lancashire with the so-called Unionidee, 

 but in Scotland (atCharlestown) found with 

 Productce, Spiriferce, and such marine shells. 



1 'Mem. Lit. Phil. Soc. Manchester,' 2d series, vol. xii, p. 209, &c. 1855. 



2 Ibid., 2d series, vol. x, p. 181, &c. 1852. Mr. Binney also refers me to the Report to the Home- 

 Secretary, for the year ending 1858, by Mr. Joseph Dickinson, F.G.S., one of H. M. Inspectors of Coal- 

 mines, as containing a good series of sections of the Lancashire Coal-field. In his * Coal-fields of Great 

 Britain,' and in the 'Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, I860,' Mr. E. Hull, F.G.S., 

 has supplied some useful information respecting the same Coal-field. See also the ' Geol. Survey Map,' 

 Sheet 89 S.E., and Explanations. 



3 From Hulton Lane Ends, and Ince Hall, near Wigan (Mr. Binney and Mr. Rofe). 



Black bass and inferior cannel-coal ... 2 6 



Coarse cannel 2 



Good cannel (with Estheria?) 2 2 



