246 Dr Hibbert on the Limestone of Burdiehouse, 



the remains of smaller fish. And, on examining the outcrops of 

 strata in other localities, this deposit was equally wanting. 



Some other fresh- water limestones will be described in the 

 supplement to this memoir. In the mean time, I shall remark, 

 that they appear to me, like the limestone of Burdiehouse, mere 

 local deposits of calcareous matter. 



SECTION VI— THE STRATA INTERMEDIATE TO THE LIMESTONE OF 

 BURDIEHOUSE AND THAT OF FOUNTAIN- WELL. 



The interval of space between the limestone of Burdiehouse 

 and that of Fountain-well, near Loanhead, comprises alternations 

 of sandstone, and argillaceous and bituminous shale, in which are 

 ironstone bands, and thin and unworkable seams of coal, with the 

 exception of one bed of coal, named the North Green seam, 

 which lies immediately below the Fountain-well limestone. At 

 the same time, although all the strata rest conformably upon 

 each other, we find that their angle of inclination has gradually 

 increased. At Burdiehouse, the limestone dips from 23° to 25° 

 to the south-east ; but, as we approach a higher series of beds, the 

 dip is 30° or 40°, and upwards. 



NOTES TO SECTION VI. 



As it is of great importance that no doubts should subsist regarding the geologi- 

 cal position which I have assigned to the limestone of Burdiehouse in the carboni- 

 ferous system of strata, the details will be given at length. 



It has been shewn that, immediately above the limestone of Burdiehouse, which 

 is of the thickness of 27 feet, occur beds of argillaceous shale, through which bitu- 

 minous matter appears to be diffused. These strata are visible, from the operation 

 of quarrying, to the height perhaps of 30 to 50 feet, or even more. Alternating 

 with these beds of shale are three, or even more, seams of a ferruginous limestone, 

 severally from 2 to 2^ inches thick, and occurring at intervals from each other of 

 from 27 to 36 inches. 



With respect to strata still higher, and next in succession, I was enabled to obtain 

 some little knowledge of them, in consequence of a shaft which had been sunk with 

 the view of carrying off the water from a freestone quarry, situated at no great dis- 

 tance, near the village of Straton. The distance between this freestone and the 

 shale, was described to me as about fifty fathoms in perpendicular depth, in which 

 nothing was found but Dulk ; that is, a soft argillaceous and bituminous shale. But 

 this description I must a little qualify. I observed, from the fragments thrown out, 



