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MR ROBERT KIDSTON ON THE FOSSIL PLANTS IN THE 



the shafts of pits, and from borings, though there are many places where the outcrops 

 of beds of coal may be seen at the surface and the associated strata examined. 



In 1870 the Ravenhead Higher Coal and the Ravenhead Main Del/ Coal at Thatto 

 Heath, were both exposed during the construction of the Huyton and St Helens 

 Railway, though when it was finished the sides of the cutting were levelled, and traces 

 of the coal seams almost obliterated. The following is a section of the strata (fig. 2), 

 and the locality will always be of local interest on account of the numerous fossil plants 

 that have been obtained there through the patient industry of the Rev. H. H. Higgins, 

 who fortunately resided so near the place that he was able to visit it almost daily for 

 several months. 



1. Pigeon House Coal. 2. Ravenhead Higher Coal. 3. Ravenhead Main Coal. 4. Bunter Pebble-Beds. 



5. Thatto Heath Sandstone. 6. Shales and Sandstone. 7. Fossil Trees. 



Fig. 2. — Coal Measures at Ravenhead, St Helens. (Scale, 12 inches to 1 mile in length.) 



The position of the coal seams is shown on the sketch (fig. 2), and that of a remark- 

 able line of trunks of trees in the position in which they originally grew, usually about 

 4 or 5 feet high from the roots upwards, and about 8 feet below the Eavenhead Main 

 Coal. It was principally in the black shales and in ironstone nodules below the coal 

 seam and below the trees that the plant remains were found, and the number of species 

 collected within such a restricted space was extraordinary. The collection when com- 

 pleted was presented by the Rev. H. H. Higgins to the Liverpool Free Public Library 

 and Museum, where it is known as the " Ravenhead Collection." Two wings of an 

 orthopterous insect, Protophasmidce, from the same beds as the plants, are also preserved 

 in the collection. 



In the Geology of Wigan, Professor Hull describes several sections where coal 

 seams might be seen cropping out at the surface, but that of the Ince 7 -feet Coal, in 

 a cliff above Leyland Mill, nearly two miles north of the railway station, is the only 

 one that is now well exposed, and may be seen from the road with a series of associated 

 shales and sandstones. The Middle Coal Measures may be seen to advantage in a 

 large quarry on the south-west of St Helens, where Messrs Doulton & Co. obtain 

 clay for making bricks and tiles; the strata are here nearly 118 feet in thickness. 

 The highest beds consist of sandstone, with a great series of shales and thin sand- 

 stones below, and three thin seams of coal about the middle. They are all above the 



