BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING. 
511 
About twenty-one feet above the thin mine there is a bed of impure cannel, 
over which there is a band of large Anthracosia. In the shales below the 
cannel two species of Anthracosia^ much smaller than the overlying ones, are 
met with. 
The next overlying coal is a four feet, having a roof of strong blue shale, 
containing an abundance of coal-measure plants, some of which have the Spi- 
^rorbis carbonarius adhering to them. At a distance of seventy-five feet above 
the last-named coal, we have the Lower Yard Bed, the roof of which contains 
a band of very large Anthracosia, thought by some geologists to be identical 
with the Anthrocosia rohusta found over the Arley mine in the Wigan district. 
The outcrop of this mine, together with the overlying band of AnthrocosiUy is 
exposed near to the north entrance of the Towneley tunnel. 
The next ascending coals are the Higher Yard Bed ; the Main Coal, five feet ; 
Shell Bed, three feet ; and the Kershaw Bed, three feet ; none of which have 
any fossils in connection with them worthy of special notice. 
Nearly twenty-one feet above the Kershaw Bed, and about thirty feet from 
the surface, lies the Dog Holes coal, the highest and the thickest of the Burn- 
ley mines. • The roof of this coal, consisting of a light grey sandstone parted 
by bands of blue shale, whenever laid open, has revealed in the greatest abun 
dance ferns of the genera Neuropteris, Pecopteris, Sphenopteris, &c., together 
with both the stems and leaves of Lepidodendron Sterribergii, Catamites, and 
Stigmaria ficoides, perforating the rock in every direction ; some of the latter 
having been traced for many yards in a horizontal position, sending out their 
rootlets at right angles to the main stems to a great distance. Large fossil 
trees of the genera Sigillaria are also abundant, some of them reaching a dia- 
meter of several feet. Seven such were found in the limited space occupied 
by a small cotton mill recently erected in Church-street, Burnley, by Mr. 
Dixon; and others were found in Mill-lane during the construction of a 
common sewer. The whole of them being in an xipright position, thus afforded 
the best possible evidence that they had grown and flourished on the spot. 
The whole of the overlying rock may be described as an immense fossil 
forest, occupying the central part of the Burnley coal-field ; the town itself 
being situate on what was once one of its richest lagoon jungles, replete with 
the flora of a former geological period. 
ON THE OCCURRENCE OF GOLD IN MERIONETSHIRE. 
By T. a. Readwin, F.G.S. 
The author confined his observations to an area of about twenty square 
miles, situate north of the turnpike road leading from Dolgelly to Barmouth, 
counts- Merioneth . 
Professor Ramsey has ably described the geology of this district, in a com- 
munication to the Geological Society of London, 1854 (" On the Geology of 
the Gold-bearing Districts of Merionethshire.") 
The Dolgelly district is bounded, or nearly so, by the picturesque and tidal 
river Mawddach, the great Llawllech or Merioneth anticlinal range, and the 
little river Camlan, to which may be added a continuation of about three miles 
further north-east, at the junction of the Cambrian sandstone, and the Lower 
Silurian Lingula-flags of the Geological Survey, and included in the survey- 
maps 75 south-east and 59 north-east. 
In this district are found the Cambrians overlaid by the Lower Silurian Lin- 
