56 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
some scales of fish, of a very minute character, with numerous bivalvo 
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 I 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 Eichmoud, 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 and 
unusual. The teeth are of several different kinds, some small, others 
