ANNIVEKSARY ADDEES8 OF THE PBESIDENT. 



201 



In the southern coal-fields of Carlow, Queen's County, Kilkenny, &c. 

 the succession of the strata above the Carboniferous Limestone is 

 remarkably uniform and constant ; any one may be taken as the 

 type of the whole, having reference to an English standard for 

 comparison *. 



The Northern Coal-district in Ireland includes the Leitrim and 

 Tyrone Coal-fields, which are representative of the southern in all 

 their successive beds and stages. Isolated geologically occurs the 

 Ballycastle Coal-field of Co. Antrim, the Irish representative of the 

 Clyde Coal-basin, of Lower Carboniferous age, a conclusion estab- 

 lished and confirmed through its fauna. The Carboniferous Lime- 

 stone here is only a few feet in thickness, its place being taken by 

 sedimentary or mechanical deposits. This is paralleled in North 

 Britain ; but the same beds thicken to the south-west in Derbyshire 

 and attain a thickness of 5000 feet of solid limestone. 



The English and Scotch Carboniferous districts and their respective 

 coal-fields receive from Prof. Hull terse but careful analysis in his 

 paper, each coal-field being divided into recognized stages varying 

 from A-G, or from the Calciferous Sandstone series of the Scottish 

 beds (A) to the Upper Coal-measures of any coal-field (G). 



I deem it important for my analysis of the Carboniferous system 

 to state concisely the subdivisions or stages into which they are 

 divided. I adopt the classification clearly given by Professor Hull, 

 which is mainly that of the English, Scotch, and Irish surveys. I 

 omit the physical characters of the beds, reference to his paper being 

 better f . 



The British Carboniferous Series in descending order, with 

 localities. 



Essentially 

 Freshwater 



and 

 Estuarine 



Beds. 



Names of Formations. 



' Stage G. Upper Coal-measures. 

 Thin coal-seams and lime- 

 stones. 



Fossils (freshwater or ma- 

 rine) : Fish ; Crustacea, 

 Cy there inflata ; Annelida, 

 Spirorbis carbonarius. 

 Stage F. Middle Coal-mea- 

 sures. Thick coals. 



Fossils (freshwater or es- 

 tuarine) : Fish ; Mollusca, 

 Anthracosia, Anthraco- 

 mya ; Crustacea, Beyri- 

 chia, Esther 'ia ; Annelida, 

 Spirorbis. Marine species 



Localities. 



Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent, 

 JSewcastle-under-Lyne, S. 

 part of Dudley Coal-field ; 

 banks of the Dee near 

 Ruabon ; Hamilton and 

 Ayrshire, Scotland. 



Central portions of all the coal- 

 fields of England and Wales ; 

 Upper Coal-measures of 

 Scotland. 



* Prof. Hull describes the Castlecomer and Killenaule Coal-fields. Vide 

 explanations of Sheets 136 and 137 of maps of the Geological Survey of Ireland ; 

 also the Slieveardagh Coal-field, Co. Tipperary. 



t Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxxiii. pp. 613-616. 



