290 



Moor coal, or that worked at Low Moor, Bowling, and 

 Bradford ; above this bed is another worked also at Low 

 Moor and Royds, called the black bed. The next in 

 order is the Beeston Coal ; next follows the very valuable 

 Coal seams worked at Middleton, Rothwell Haigh, Waterloo, 

 and Wakefield Outwood Collieries, which are succeeded by 

 those of Lofthouse, &c. With the identity or not of some 

 of these seams, I have nothing to do ; I only allude to the 

 most generally recognized Coal beds, as the source^ from 

 whence fossils have been received. 



This part of the Carboniferous system is distinguished 

 from all the other formations by the much greater abundance 

 and elegance of its fossil plants, which is only what we should, 

 d priori, expect, knowing as we do that this valuable deposit 

 owes its existence to vast accumulations of vegetable matter. 

 The plants, therefore, have been long known and acknow- 

 ledged, though not until very lately accurately identified and 

 classed. But the remains of the higher divisions of the 

 animal kingdom were not even supposed to occur at all. 

 Mr. Conybeare, indeed, in his valuable " Geology of England 

 and Wales" says, " The remains derived from the animal 

 kingdom are very rare, and entirely confined to a few 

 species of Testacea, excepting that in one instance a 

 fragment supposed to have been part of the radius of a 

 Ballistes has been found." That this opinion was un- 

 founded, I need scarcely say, when our own district 

 furnishes such abundant evidence to the contrary. Nay, 

 I believe I may assert, without fear of contradiction, that 

 the West Riding produced the Jirst well authenticated 

 specimens of Ichthyological Exuviae, from the Coal forma- 

 tion, in the justly celebrated Heads of Megalichthys, from 

 the Low Moor and Waterloo Collieries, drawings of which 

 were sent to Cuvier, in 1823, for his opinion as to their 

 Reptilian or Fish nature. 



