37 



MICRO-PALEONTOLOGY OF THE NORTHERN 

 CARBONIFEROUS SHALES. 



By GEORGE R. VINE, 

 Attercliffe, Sheffield; Secretary of the British Association Cojiurattee on Fossil Poly zoa. 



I.-INTRODUCTION: FOR A.MINIFERA, &c. 



Many years ago, before the publication of Mr. H. B. Brady's 

 Monograph on the Carboniferous and Permian Foraminifera 

 (Pateontographical Society, 1876), I received from the Rev. W. 

 Howchin, most of the material out of which I have picked the 

 micro-organisms that will be described in the following papers. 

 Before, however, I describe the organic forms it may be well to 

 direct attention to the material itself. Previous to the publication 

 of a few special papers within the last thirty years, very little 

 attention was paid to minute organisms in the Carboniferous 

 Shales of either Scotland or England, and consequently it was supposed 

 by people unacquainted with the subject that our British Carbon- 

 iferous Shales were poor indeed in Foraminifera and Entomostraca. 

 It is only within the last ten or twelve years that very many 

 species belonging to these two classes have been added to our 

 British lists. In 1875, Mr. Howchin writing to me when sending 

 the material says : ' Foraminifera from the [Carboniferous] Lime- 

 stone, have been hitherto considered very rare objects, and I question 

 if there are half-a-dozen persons in the kingdom who have examples 

 [of material] such as I now send you. Mr. H. B. Brady is preparing 

 a monograph ... in which he will figure no less than about 

 fifty species, some of which I have been so fortunate as to discover 

 myself.' Of the Entomostraca of East Kilbride, Scotland, only 

 fifteen or twenty species were known v/hen Mr. John Young began 

 his labours, and by his continuous researches Mr. Young has added 

 considerably to our lists, which Professor T. Rupert Jones and Mr. 

 J. W. Kirkby have so ably described in their various papers. The 

 Polyzoa of the Northern Carboniferous Shales have not, as yet, 

 been described ; and it is my intention in the first place to direct 

 special attention to these, and incidentally to the other organisms as 

 well. 



It may be well, perhaps, for the sake of young beginners, to 

 point out how material may be obtained. In the first place anything 

 will be valuable in connexion with the Limestone series which is 

 dissolvable and can be washed down in water, such as are generally 

 found either as : — 



Sept. 1884, 



