PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 
103 
a heard limestone, called the ironstone ; then follows another shale, with 
various shells, and some small Trilobites. Shales and sandstones then 
alternate two or three times, with sometimes a thin seam of coal, one of 
which is the " Crow Coal," two or three inches thick ; upon these is an- 
other thin limestone of an irregular ferruginous character, affording beau- 
tiful variegated corals, Astraea and Cyathophj'llum ; upon it follows another 
sandstone, with clay shale, having a seam of coal about eleven inches thick. 
The coals, with their associated deposits, are of very small extent ; the 
widest area they afford does not exceed half a mile, and, in the line of the 
strata, not more than four or five miles, beyond which they either have 
never been formed, or are overlaid. AYith respect to the coal formation in 
these rocks, as a general rule, wherever a clay shale 'is found lying on 
a sandstone, it is possible to find in the shale a trace of coal varying from 
a mere mark to twelve or thirteen inches. It is worthy of notice that the 
shales resting upon limestone are invariably full of animal- and destitute of 
vegetable-remains, while those upon sandstones are destitute of animal- 
remains. 
We now cross a series of red-coloured limestones, formed in a great 
measure of Encrinitic fragments. Upon the first of these rests a grey 
sandstone, followed by limestone ; a sandstone follows, the thickest in 
the series, and, from its general character, of deep-sea origin. The lime- 
stone overlying it, one of tiie thickest and most important, is the last of its 
race, for upon it rests the iS^ew lied Sandstone. These two may be traced 
all through this and the sister-county ; in many places they are almost 
the only representatives of the Lower Carboniferous era, having either 
totally overlaid the others, or they have never been deposited. The Mor- 
land limestone, does not, however, immediately follow the thick sandstone, 
for between them, in the neighbourhood of Morland and King's Meaburii 
Scar, there may be found a tliin limestone and sandstone. The limestone 
is of a deep red colour, and with the red clay shale above it, is perhaps the 
richest and most prolific in fossil remains of any. It is certainly a shallow- 
water deposit. Its upper beds are the site ot a very luxuriant forest of 
crinoids ; these are very numerous in the shales, and some may be found 
with the root attached in their original positions. Associated with them 
are quantities of the Fencstella, beautifully preserved, shells innumerable 
on every layer, and very frequently remains of small Trilobites. Thus, 
these animals range through the whole of this series, but are only found in 
deposits of a coast or shallow- water origin. The sandstone above is decidedly 
an ancient shore, or sandy beach. AVhat the inhabitants of the land were, 
these rocks have afforded no record ; but of the sea, the most gigantic 
form of animal life was the Orthoceras. These are numerous in the upper 
red limestones, varying in size from two to four and a half feet in length, 
perhaps the most gigantic size they have ever attained, and doubtless at 
that era th(>y were lords of the sea. 
The lower beds of the Xew Eed Sandstone are the next rocks upon the 
Morland limestone. These, in the southern extremity of the basin, are 
breccias, of great thickness, followed by true sandstone. These, according 
to Professor Harkness, belong to the Permian ; they encroach or recede 
from the outcrop of the Morland limestone, as the level of the country 
has permitted, but in no case are they overlaying it. 
Having given the characteristic features of each rock, in the order of its 
deposit, the author gave an outline of the position they occupy, and of the 
forces he conceived to have been at work. It has been said the Old Red 
Sandstone lies unconformably upon the metamorphic slate rock : 'w hat its 
angle of dip might be the author could not say, but it is probably the same 
