PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 
71 
the Lower Coal-measures. Tliese specimens were cliiefly 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 Geological 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 ballions 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 JNew 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 Uphollaud 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-held was next inspected ; then the flagstone quarries of Hipper- 
holme and South Owram, where flags of 4 and 5 yards square were bein^ 
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 blaA 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 Hey wood, 
between the upper flag deposit and the Arley or Dogshaw j\Iine. 
The composition of the ironstone difiers 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 was 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 
Chapel-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 
