
@mse6" ) 
XVI.—Notes on the Mountain Limestone and Lower Carboniferous Rocks of the 
Fifeshire Coast from Burniisland to St Andrews. By the Rev. THomas 
Brown, Edinburgh. 
(Read 17th April 1860.) 
Introduction. Mountain Limestone—continued. 

I. General Course of Strata. 2. Estuarine Strata, F to L. 
II. Trap Rocks. 3. Limestone L. 
III. Mountain Limestone. IV. Lower Carboniferous. 
1. Six Upper Limestones, A to F. Myalina Beds. 
Corals. Petrified Trees. 
Shells. Marine Beds. 
Crustacea. Fossils. . 
Fish. V. Results—The Two Groups defined. 
Tuberculated Fish. 
Introduction. 
In this paper I shall first refer to the circumstances under which the follow- 
ing observations were made. 
Thad gone in the autumn of 1856 for a few weeks to Elie on the Fife coast, 
and was induced, as a means of relaxation and exercise in the open air, to pay 
some attention to the geology of the neighbourhood, resuming for a brief interval 
what was once a favourite pursuit. About a mile to the east of the village, I 
found a stratum well deserving attention—a thin bed of limestone—dipping in- 
land a little beyond the cliff on which stands the ruined Castle of Ardross. The 
fossil shells which it contained were of unusual form, and beautifully preserved ; 
there were fish remains of two or three species, and a small group of crustaceans 
still more remarkable. Among the fish I thought I could detect the large scales 
of an Irish species—the Holoptychius Portlockii—and among the crustaceans 
there were the valves of Dithyrocaris, a genus particularly characteristic of the 
Trish beds. At once the question arose whether these fossils might not serve as 
links connecting this Ardross bed with the Irish series. The point was of the 
more importance, that our leading geologists had been differing widely as to the 
true position of our Scottish coal strata in the geological scale. The Jamented 
Professor Epwarp Forpss had assigned them a place comparatively high, while 
Sir Roprrick Murcuison, with surer judgment, had taken the opposite view and 
put them beneath the Newcastle coal-field. If any light could be thrown on this 
question, it might prove of some interest to the Scottish geologist. My first ob- 
, ject, then, was to ascertain the level on which the Ardross limestone lay among 
VOL. XXII. PART II. oG 
