TATE ON THE GEOLOGY OF BEADNELL. 
03 
Producttis gigdnteus and other commoner moiintain-limestone fossils, it 
abounds with large masses of the corals Lithostrotion hasaltiforme and 
Chcetetes septosus ; and occasionally we find Syringopora ramulosa, 
which is a rare coral in the Northumberland beds. These distinctive 
organisms are excellent guides in tracing the range of this " sill." 
Northward I have found it at Holy Island, and southward I have 
traced it to Spittleford, near Embletou, and to Dunstan, Craster, and 
Shilbottle ; thence in a south-west direction to Whittle, Newton-on- 
the-Moor, Framlington, and across the Coquet to Ward's Hill and 
Rothley. It should be noticed that the magaesian character of this 
limestone is a local phenomenon, seemingly in some way arising from 
the proximity of basalt ; in several parts of its range, as at Shilbottle 
and Framlington, it is a comparatively pure carbonate of lime. 
There are eighteen different coal-seams in the section ; most of them 
thiu and of an inferior quality ; only two exceeding 2 feet in thick- 
ness ; their aggregate thickness being only 24 feet 4 inches. That 
which is called the " Beadnell-coal" (No. 35) has been worked both 
for domestic use and for lime-burning. It is of variable thickness, 
seldom less than 2 feet 6 inches, and generally about 3 feet ; but on 
Mrs. Taylor's estate it has been found as much as 6 feet thick, and of 
a better quality than in other localities. It lies there, however, below 
the sea -level ; and as the sea some time ago broke into a neighbouring 
colliery, due precautions would be necessary to prevent a similar 
irruption, in the event of this more valuable portion being worked for 
the use of the district. 
The sandstones and shales associated with the coal-seams contain 
relics of the vegetation of the Carboniferous Era ; Stigmaria ficoides 
appear abundantly in these beds, with a few Sigillarise. One interesting 
specimen of Sigillaria, laid bare in quarrying the sandstone in 1853, 
deserves a more particular notice ; although but a fragment, it was 
six feet in height, two feet two inches in diameter at the lower end, 
and one foot nine inches at the higher. It stood perpendicular to the 
strata, which dip 15° south-east, and its inclination to the horizon was 
75°. The lower extremity terminated abruptly on the surface of slaty 
sandstone beds, but the outcrop of the rock in which it was embedded 
prevented our knowing how far upward it extended. Over its surface 
was a thin carbonaceous coating, being the bark converted into coal ; 
