56 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



some scales of fish of a very minute character, with numerous bivalve 

 fresh-water shells of the unio genus ; I had not proceeded far, however, 

 before I found new specimens of scales which I had never before seen, 

 and it was not long before [ enumerated scales of several distinct 

 characters, some finely enamelled, and fish-teeth of three or four 

 different kinds. After a few weeks' labour in this (to rae) interesting 

 field of research I obtained a jaw of a minute fish, very perfect, with six 

 or seven teeth attached, and also a fine portion of a large jaw with 

 three large teeth, which specimens were exhibited by my friend, Mr. 

 Tootal, at a late gathering of the Yorkshire Natural History Society, 

 at the hospitable mansion of Edward Wood, Esq., at Eichmond, in this 

 county, and there excited considerable interest. 



The bed containing these fossils is exposed to view about a mile 

 and-a-half to the north of the town of Wakefield, and is found dipping 

 to the south-east in the direction of Stanley and St. John's Church ; in 

 all probability it underlies the whole town, and possibly continues for 

 many miles in extent. The thickness of the true coal immediate is 

 only four or five inches, and it underlies the bed containing the organic 

 remains, which bed is composed of a hard kind of splintery dark shale 

 combined with a mixture of imperfect coal shale in layers, which 

 easily yield to the hammer. It must be understood that the bed is of 

 two kinds, one wherein the fracture is brittle and uncertain, the other 

 where the cleavage occurs in layers of a more certain and determinate 

 character, and yields easily to a blow given ; the two combined are 

 about two feet in thickness. Both above and below the beds is found the 

 usual bind of a soapy texture, so common in the coal measures, and of 

 a whitish or grey leaden colour. The probability is, that at some earlier 

 period of this earth's history, the bed alluded to was a deposit from 

 some fresh-water lake, analogous, it may be, to some of the American 

 lakes, wherein have sported a variety of fish chiefly of the Ganoid order. 

 The scales of many exceed an inch square, and are covered with a fine- 

 coated enamel, with very minute pores — for instance, the Megalicthys 

 Hibbertii ; others exhibit a rotundity of shape (the Holoptychius 

 Giganteus) with beautiful markings on the under surface, which the 

 softness of the bed and the extreme fineness of its composition tend 

 greatly to preserve — so much so, that they will repay examination from 

 the powers of the microscope, a feature somewhat remarkable andj 

 unusual. The teeth are of several diff'erent kinds, some small, other! 



