6i 



MICRO-PALiEONTOLOGY OF THE NORTHERN 

 CARBONIFEROUS SHALES. 



By GEORGE R. VINE, 

 Attercliffe, Sheffield; Secretary of the British Association Cofiivtittce on. Fossil Polyzoa. 



II.-POIiYZOA OF THE3 KEDESDALE SHALES, 

 NOflTHCJMBEilLAlSfD. 



So far as I am able to judge from the material sent to me by Mr. 

 Howchin, the Polyzoa of nearly the whole of the Northern Shales are 

 only found in minute fragments. Generally speaking the fragments 

 are well preserved, and the characters of the species are easily 

 recognised ; but even some of these are coated over with a secondary 

 deposit of calcareous matter, similar in certain respects to the 

 secondary deposit which coats over the Polyzoa of Permian age. 

 I do not know the cause of this, but I have observed that the 

 Polypora of the Scotch beds are occasionally thickened by calcareous 

 layers, not, however, in the same way as the coatings found on species 

 in the Redesdale Shales. 



In speaking of the Polyzoal remains, I have been compelled to use 

 the word 'abundant' I use it, however, in a comparative, rather 

 than in a literal sense, and in relation to the other organisms which 

 are found in the shales. The gradational scale would run thus : — 

 Polyzoa, abundant; Entomostraca, moderately abundant; Forami- 

 nifera, rather rare. 



With regard to this last group of organisms, I relied chiefly for 

 the compilation of the hst {Naturalist^ Sept. 1884, p. 39) on Mr. 

 H. B. Brady's Monograph ; but as I had in my cabinet several species 

 of Foraminifera that were not included in the column devoted to 

 ' Redesdale,' I indicated their presence thus : *v. In all probability, 

 before the conclusion of these papers, I may have to revise the list ; 

 but so far as published only with regard to the Lagense, as Professor 

 Lebour points out to me that possibly No. 25 and No. 27 (see list) 

 are wrong identifications : these two species being Upper rather than 

 Lower Bernician forms. 



The Polyzoa of the Shales are rather characteristic, for though a 

 number of species are found, generally speaking these belong to very 

 limited groups. The PinnatoporcB are well represented. Fragments 

 of Fenestella are rather rare; Polypora is, so far as I can judge, 

 entirely absent ; and some other groups are represented by occasional 

 fragments. In this paper, then, I shall consider that it will be far 

 wiser to give a little more detail in describing the groups and species 

 than will be necessary when dealing with the other Northumberland 

 Shales ; and though I shall give ample references to the literature of 

 the subject, perhaps the two papers on Yorkshire and Derbyshire 



Oct. 1884. 



