R. ETItERIDGE, JUtf., Otf LOWER- CARBONIFEROUS INVERTEBRATA. 3 



yellow and white thick-bedded sandstones, the Granton and Craig- 

 leith Sandstones *. On the other hand, Mr. Henderson, in a recently 

 published paper " On the Wardie and Granton Series of Sandstones 

 and Shales " f , combats this view, and considers that the sandstones 

 of Craigleith and Granton really underlie the Wardie Shales and 

 form the base of the latter. In the course of his examination of 

 the district, Mr. Henderson has observed at several localities well- 

 marked bands of shale containing marine fossils, as at Woodhall, 

 Dean Bridge, Drumsheugh, Craigleith, and Granton ; and from the 

 close identity of the species at these several localities he is led 

 to consider the beds there exposed as occupying much the same 

 position, near the base of the Wardie Shales and above the sand- 

 stones of Craigleith and Granton. Omitting all mention of contem- 

 poraneous igneous rocks, we come in ascending order to the horizon 

 of the well-known and valuable Burdiehouse Limestone ; but as this 

 is without the scope of the present paper, it need not be further 

 referred to here. 



I. On our present Knowledge of the Invertebrate Fauna of the Lower 

 Carboniferous or Caleiferous Sandstone Series of the Edinburgh 

 Neighbourhood. 



So far as I have been able to ascertain, representatives of the 

 Poraminifera, Spongida, Coelenterata, and Echinodermata have not 

 been recorded from the above rocks. The most likely locality to 

 yield members of either of these divisions will be the bed of marine 

 shale at Woodhall, in the water of Leith, afterwards to be more 

 fully noticed. 



Annelida. — In Dr. Hibbert's memoir " On the Freshwater Lime- 

 stone of Burdiehouse, &c. " J, published in 1836, the occurrence is 

 mentioned, in the fourth section of the paper (" The Microscopic 

 Animals contained in the Limestone of Burdiehouse "), of minute 

 shells with " a sort of spiral organization, by no means unlike that 

 of the Planorbis or Spirorbis." He here clearly refers to the little 

 Annelid named about this time Microconchus carbonarius by Mur- 

 chison. Hibbert also noticed and figured a little body which he com- 

 pared to a Nautilus, but remarked its want of septa §. The figure 



* Mem. G-eol. Surv. Scotl. p. 31. 

 t Trans. Edinb. Geol. Soc. 1877, iii. pt. 1, p. 24. 

 \ Trans. E. Soc. Edinburgh, xiii. p. 169. 



§ Loc. cit. p. 181. I consider this little body to be a well-marked variety of 

 Spirorbis carbonarius, Murchison, and offer the following description of it : — 



Spirorbis carbonarius, Murch., var. Hibberti, var. nov. PI. I. fig. 2. 



Nautilus, Hibbert, Trans. E. Soc. Edinb. 1836, xiii. p. 151 ; Rhind, Excursions 

 around Edinb. 1836, p. 35, fig. 14 c. 



Var. char. Size exceeding that of the species itself, the last turn of the tube 

 increasing more rapidly ; aperture with a sigmoidal or nautiliform margin re- 

 flected somewhat back over the umbilicus, which is deep. By following the 

 direction of the surface -strias the sigmoidal margin can be traced. 



Horizon. Beds in connexion with the Burdiehouse Limestone, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Edinburgh. 



B2 



