PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 



71 



the Lower Coal-measures. These specimens were chiefly obtained from 

 the calcareous nodules, known as " baum pots," found in the roof-shale of 

 the " hard bed " of coal, which has been extensively worked in the neigh- 

 bourhood. There is also a good collection of fossil coal plants. Swan 

 Banks Colliery was next visited. The "soft" and "hard" beds are 

 wrought there. The former, 1 foot 5 inches thick, lies about 45 yards 

 above the "rough rock " — the Upper Millstone of Professor Phillips and 

 the G-eological Survey. Twenty-six yards above the last-named seam is the 

 ?■ hard bed," nearly 2 feet in thickness, with a thin Gannister floor, round 

 calcareous nodules or bullions in the seam of coal itself, and black shales, 

 containing the " baum pots," in the roof. The geological position, charac- 

 ters of the coal and its adjoining strata, as well as the fossil shells, all tend 

 to show that this seam is the same as the bullion mine of the Burnley dis- 

 trict, and the Gannister mine of Dulesgate, Todmorden. The lower mine, 

 containing beds of Anthracosia under its floor, probably occupies the same 

 geological position as the Bassy or Salts Mine of the Bury and JN ew Mills 

 districts. Besides these two seams there are several smaller ones which 

 are not worked ; and on the top of the hill the lower part of the Elland 

 flagstone, the equivalent of the Upper or Upholland flags of Lancashire, is 

 seen ; so this series of coals lies between the rough rock and the upper 

 flagstone, and is identical with that part of the lower called Rochdale series 

 of coals in Lancashire. 



Mr. Richardson's unrivalled collection of fossil plants from the York- 

 shire coal-field was next inspected ; then the flagstone quarries of Hipper- 

 holme and South Owram, where flags of 4 and 5 yards square were being 

 lifted. These stones, under the name of Yorkshire flags, are known all 

 over England. The party now started by rail to Low Moor. 



The Low Moor Iron Company's works were visited, as were also the 

 mines. The lower, or " better bed," is a coal of most excellent quality, 

 but only about 16 inches in thickness. It is exclusively used for making 

 coke to smelt the iron-ore. The " black bed," from 30 to 35 inches in 

 thickness, lies some 40 yards above it ; but it is very inferior in quality : 

 over it are about 4 inches of clay-band ironstone, in 4 or 5 layers, dispersed 

 through 4 feet 6 inches of black shale. Besides the "black bed," an 

 ironstone, known by the name of the " white bed," and lying some distance 

 above the former, is used. 



The position of the Low Moor seams of coal and their accompanying 

 ironstones, is immediately above the Halifax series of coals and its over- 

 lying bed of flagstone, as seen at South Owram ; strata not well developed 

 in the Lancashire coal-field, although there represented near Heywood, 

 between the upper flag deposit and the Arley or Dogshaw Mine. 



The composition of the ironstone differs little from the ordinary clay- 

 ironstones of the Yorkshire and Derbyshire Coal-measures, certainly not 

 so much as to account for the price and quality of the iron made from the 

 former, when compared with that made from the latter ; it is therefore 

 evident that the chief cause is the superiority of the iron produced. 



An opinion w^as expressed by members of both Societies that it was 

 desirable more of such mutual meetings should be held. Meetings might 

 be held at Settle, to examine the bone-caves ; at Ingleton, to inspect the 

 Permian deposits of West-house, the coal-field of Black Burton, the 

 mountain limestone and Silurian beds of Thornton Gill, and the dykes of 

 Chapcl-le-Dale ; at Hazelhead, to examine the Lower Coal-measures seen 

 between Dunford Bridge and Penistone. 



Mr. Joseph Goodwin read a paper " On the Long-wall versus Pillar-and- 

 Stall System of getting Coals." Much has been said upon the relative 



