VINE : MICRO-PAL/EONTOLOGY. 



1. ' Marly partings between the different beds of Limestone. 



2. ' Beds of Argillaceous Shales interstratified with the Limestone. 



3. 'The face of the rock undergoing disintegration, as when it 



comes near the surface covered with a slight soil. 



4. ' Fragments of Limestone in a rotten condition which can be 



dealt with similarly as chalk.' 



Such were the instructions given to me by Mr. Howchin in 1875, 

 and since then I have never failed to obtain abundance of material 

 for my labours whenever I visited a Limestone district. 



' In the North of England, and particularly in Scotland, the 

 Limestone is split up into a number of minor beds, intercalated with 

 shales, &c., which were undoubtedly formed in close proximity to 

 land ; the shales probably under estuarine conditions : some are 

 strongly carbonaceous, and indissolvable, others argillaceous, and 

 with more or less ease can be washed down and the fossils separated 

 from the matrix' (Rev. W. Howchin, lit. cit. 1875). There are, 

 however, many shales in the North— and especially so in North 

 Yorkshire — so saturated with mud that at first sight it seems almost 

 hopeless to expect to find minute fossils in these. This repulsive 

 aspect of the muddy material must never be a means of deterring 

 the student from thoroughly searching everything. The richest 

 shales, such as those of Hurst, Gair, and Hairmyres, are repulsive in 

 the extreme to look at, but the reward to the washer is most ample. 

 It is so with the shales of Northumberland, and all that I can say to 

 the worker is what was said to me when I began my studies : — ' First 

 search, then find : then learn ; after which tell others what you 

 know.' 



My Northumberland material is derived from several localities,, 

 the principal , of which are : — 



(1) Redesdale, Ironstone workings. 



(2) Skellygate, Redesdale. 



(3) Elf Hills Quarry, Yoredale series. 



(4) Fourstones ; and 



(5) Ingoe, also Yoredale. 



Before passing away from these different workings to my own 

 special subject, I will give a list of the Foraminifera found in the 

 material and described by Mr. H. B. Brady in tlie Monograph 

 previously referred to. 



Of the twenty-nine species of Foraminifera cited on next page the 

 most abundant of the forms are found in No. 2, Skelly gate, and 

 No. 4, Fourstones, and the next abundant in No. 5, the Ingoe Shales. 

 The Foraminifera are very rare in the other washings. Only two 



Naturalist, 



