Yol. 65.] CARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONE OE COUNTY CLAEE. 55"l 



subzone). 

 Spocial faunal characters: — 



The Clisiophyllids and Lithostrotions are typically absent, and 

 are replaced by Zaphrentids of the type of Zaphreniis ennis- 

 Tcilleni and Z. oystermouthensis ; Caninia aff. cornucopia? is 

 everywhere common. No specimen of Cyathaxonia has yet 

 been recorded. 



Productus aff. scabriculus and Pr. punctatus are found here. 



Martinia glabra, Athyris acvpansa, and Spirifer aff. increbescens 

 have been recorded, but the most characteristic brachiopod is 

 Productus sulcatus. 



Y. Description oe certain Fossil Localities. 

 (A) Barony of Lower Bunratty. 



Lower Limestone Shales (Modiola Phase to lower part 

 of Z 2 ). — These beds occur along the north-western foot of the Slieve 

 Bernagh Mountains, but are everywhere covered by Drift except 

 in the Gourna River section : the latter is a small tributary of 

 the Owengarney, about a mile east of Sixmilebridge. The section 

 commences at Ballyroe Bridge, where beds of unfossiliferous green 

 shales and sandstones, belonging to the Old Red Sandstone Series, 

 are seen. About 100 yards down stream occurs a prominent 

 band of hard blue grit, and immediately above this the basement- 

 beds of the Carboniferous are met with, consisting of a few feet of 

 thinly-bedded yellow sandstones, which contain a rich lamelli- 

 branch fauna (the Modiola Phase). They are succeeded by shaly 

 sandstones of the Cleistopora Zone ; all the fossils mentioned in the 

 faunal list (K) were found at this locality. The stream at this 

 point takes a bend, following the strike of the beds ; and as the 

 latter are only exposed in a few feet of overhung bank, their conform- 

 ability with the underlying Old Red Sandstone is difficult to prove. 

 These sandy beds cannot be directly measured, but their thickness 

 probably does not exceed 20 feet. They are overlain conformably 

 by the black fossiliferous shales of the clathratus subzone (ZJ, 

 which are here especially rich in fossils (Syringothyris aff. cuspi- 

 data, Rliipidomella michelini, Productus cf. burlingtonensis, Za- 

 phrentis sp.). These beds can be followed for some distance down 

 stream, but soon become obscured by Drift, and are not exposed 

 along the small stream-valley entering on the east. 



When they are again met with, forming a small cascade in the 

 main stream, several new species have made their appearance 

 (Zaphrentis Iconinclci, Michelinia favosa, Syringopora 0), and inter- 

 bedded limestone-bands become more persistent. I regard these 

 beds as forming the lowest exposure in the Iconinclci subzone (Z ). 

 They crop out continuously almost as far as Gourna Bridge, the last 



