24 THE FOSSIL FLORA OF THE CUMBERLAND COALFIELD. [Feb. I9O3, 



as due to a local and abnormal development of siliceous rock near 

 the centre of the Coal-Measures of the South of England and 

 Wales. On the other hand, he thought it not improbable that the 

 Whitehaven Sandstone had its representative in the Upper Red- 

 Sandstone Series of Lanarkshire and the Clyde Basin, which was 

 well developed at Hamilton. 



Dr. Traquair said that he had listened to the paper with very 

 great interest, but regretted that he was not personally acquainted 

 with the district, nor had he seen any fish-remains from the coal- 

 bearing beds in question. With regard to the stratigraphical value 

 of fishes in the Carboniferous system, he stated that the estuarine 

 fish-fauna of the Lower Carboniferous strata was characterized by a 

 different assemblage of forms from that of the Upper, very few 

 species passing the boundary of the base of the Millstone Grit. 

 As regards the Upper Carboniferous division, almost all the species 

 common in the Lower Coal-Measures reappeared in the Middle, so 

 that the fishes could not be, in the present state of our knowledge, 

 depended on for differentiation between these two horizons. He 

 had seen no fish-remains from the true Upper Coal-Measures of 

 England. 



Dr. D. H. Scott congratulated the Author on his paper, and on 

 the beauty of his photographs of the fossil plants described. He 

 thought that on paheobotanical evidence the Author had made out 

 a strong case for a Middle Coal-Measure horizon. 



The Author, in reply to the President, said that he did not mean 

 in any way to suggest that the Millstone Grit was absent from the 

 Cumberland Coalfield. Such rocks are marked on the Geological 

 Survey Map (101 S.W.), a few miles inland from the coast, extending 

 from the neighbourhood of Whitehaven to Workington. His obser- 

 vations were intended to call attention to the fact that the Millstone 

 Grit had never been identified in any boring below any of the great 

 coal-seams of the district, and consequently the vertical extent of 

 the Productive Measures was still uncertain. 



In reply to Prof. Hull, the Author said that the upper division 

 of the Sandstone Series was doubtless not the exact equivalent of 

 the Lower Pennant Grit of South Wales. The somewhat scanty 

 evidence, at present available, merely suggested that the Upper 

 Sandstone Series may eventually prove to occupy about the same 

 horizon in the Coal-Measures. 



The communication forwarded by Dr. W T heelton Hind with regard 

 to the discovery of lamellibranchs by Miss Donald at All Hallows, 

 referred to the Aspatria district of the Cumberland Coalfield, where 

 the age and succession of the beds were also in dispute, and this 

 discovery would probably throw some light on these questions. 



