510 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
The lowest of the gamiister series, which is a four feet coal, identical with 
the Spa Clough bottom bed, is perhaps the most interesting, on account of its 
fossils, of any mine in the Burnley measures. 
Its roof consists of a thin stratum of very fine black shale, of about four 
inches, in which there are embedded large numlDers of very fine shells, in a high 
state of preservation, of the Buccinum, Pi/ramis, Catillus, Bellerophon, &c., 
together with the jaws, teeth, and scales of fishes. This thin stratum of shale 
is succeeded by another shale (the pecten), in which the conditions of life have 
been entirely changed ; the Bellerophons, &c., which were so numerous in the 
preceding shale, have been entirely swept ofP, and their plates supplied by 
immense numbers of Pecte?is, Goniatites, and Orthoneratites. 
The pecten shale reaches a thickness of several feet, and is followed by a 
third shale, in which the conditions of life have been once more changed ; the 
only representatives found in this shale of the immense number of shells that 
inliabited the waters by which the pecten shales wore deposited, being a few 
very large Goniatiles^ which appear to have survived the changes that destroyed 
their predecessors. 
In the last-mentioned, or third slfale, there are embedded small ironstone 
nodules, in which are enclosed very small, but very elegantly marked, Gonia- 
tites, specifically distinct from those of the preceding shale ; others of these 
balls, when broken, exhibit entire specimens of ganoid fish. 
It is well known in some localities as the " Bullion Coal," in consequence of 
being interspersed with pyritous nodules, called by the miners " buUious," some 
of which contain Sigillaria, Lepidodendra, and other coal-measure plants, in a 
high state of preservation. 
One hundred and forty feet above the bullion coal, there lies the middle coal 
of the Gannester series, or Spa Clough top bed, which is succeeded at a dis- 
tance of twenty-one feet by the foot mine, with a hard gamiister floor. 
In the roof of the former of the above coals there have been found some 
very fine rays of the Gyr acanthus, also teeth of Rhizodns, Megaliddliys, and 
Ho'loptychius, together with scales, plates, jaws, bones, &c. Also, six hundred 
and seventy-five feet above the gannister, the Arley series of coals occurs, con- 
sisting of the Habergham, or Arley mine, four feet ; the Dandy, three feet ; 
and the China, two feet. Trom the bone-bed in the black shale roof of the 
lowest, or Arley mine, which is the most valuable of the Burnley mines, splen- 
did specimens of fish remains of the genera Megalichthys, Rhizodus, Diplodus, 
&c., have been collected. 
The distance from the Arley to the lowest mine of the Burnley higher series 
is about four hundred and sixty feet. It is a four feet coal divided into two 
seams by a bed of " Bing," in which, lying in heaps, are embedded coniferous 
fossil fruit of the genera Trigo?iocarpum. The roof of this coal contains a 
small species of Anthracosia, also some good Lejiidostrobi, enclosed in ironstone 
nodules. 
The next higher coal is about two and three-quarters feet thick, and identical 
wdth the FuUedge thin bed ; it is exceedingly rich in ichthyological remains. 
The parting between the coal and roof has yielded very fine jaws, teeth, scales, 
and vertibral bones of the Megalichthys Hibbertii, also very perfect teeth of the 
Ctenoptychius pectinatus, C. apicalies, together with rays belonging to the 
Gyracanthus, Hybodus, Pleuracanthus, &c. The roof of this coal is a very 
finely laminated black shale, replete with the remains of fossil fish, some of 
•which were examined during the Association Exhibition in the Free Trade 
Hall, Manchester, hj Sir PhUip De M. G. Egerton, M.P., E.R.S., F.G.S., &c., 
and the Earl of Enniskillen, D.C.L., E.R.S., &c., and have been declared by 
the above eminent ichthyologists to be entirely new to science. It also con- 
tains a very attenuated-looking bivalve-shell. 
