470 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
rically less complete than that of England and Ireland, it is pro- 
bable that the catalogue may be somewhat increased by further 
research. 
It is to the deservedly honoured name of the son of a working 
weaver in Glasgow that science is indebted for the first account of a 
not inconsiderable number of the natural riches of one of the most 
productive coal-fields in Scotland. David Ure, while unemployed at 
his loom, was continually obsei-ving and collecting all that appeared 
to hira worthy of notice ; and in 1793 he published a very remarka- 
ble octavo volume, entitled " The History of Rutherglen and East 
Kilbiide," and in which will be found the first descriptions and 
figures of about eleven of the most characteristic Carboniferous 
bracliiopoda that occur in the neigliboui-hood of Glasgow. David 
Ure was acquainted with Fabius Columna's "De Purpura," published 
in 1616, and adopted his term " anomia " for the greater number of 
those shells which we now include among the Brachiopoda. In 
1793, and for nearly half a century later, so Httle was known of 
the true character of the numerous shells that compose the class, 
that it would be unreasonable to expect that Ure, with all that supe- 
rior mind with which he was endowed, could do more than endea- 
vour to class his shells according to what might appear to him their 
external resemblances. He therefore arranged his specimens into 
three sections, viz. : 1. Anomice Iceves ; 2. A.sirkdm; 3. A.ecldnatce. 
No specific denominations were however given ; but in order to con- 
vey to the reader a better idea of the author's views, we may men- 
tion that in his "Anomise laeves" were placed those species that 
were afterwards termed Athijris ambirjua (Ure, pi. xvi. fig 9), and 
h)pirifera Urii (pi. xiv. fig 12). In his " Anomiae striatse " we find 
llJii/ucJionella pleurodmi fpl. xiv. fig 6), Spirifera hisulcata (pi. xv. fig 
1), and Orthis Michelini (pi. xiv. figs 13, 14) ; while his " Anomiae 
echinatae" would comprise P ro ductus long ispinvs (pi. xv. figs 3, 4), 
Prod, semireticidalus (pi. xvi. fig 12), and Prod, jjunctatus (pi. xv. 
fig 7). Under the genus " Pecten," he further adds, Chonates 
variolata (pi. xvi. figs 10, 11), Stroptorhjnchws crenistria (pi. xiv. fig 
19), and St. radlalls (pi. xvi. fig 13). Under "Patella" he figures 
a Brscina (pi. xv. fig 10). Such an arrangement of the Brachiopoda 
would now-a-days appear impossible, but in 1793 it was perfectly 
unavoidable, as well as excusable. Ure's figures are very passable, 
and especially so for the time at which they were engraved. The 
author appears also to have appreciated the importance of internal 
characters ; but, from not being able to interjiret the value or use of 
the impressions, &c., he did not always represent them correctly.* 
But few of our Scottish Brachiopoda have been figured or pro- 
perly described since the time of Ure, so that the present contri- 
bution will, 1 hope, really fill up a deficiency. In his " History of 
British Animals," pubhshed in 1828, Dr. Fleming does not make 
* David Uro was for some time engaged on Sir John Sinclau-'s Statistical Ac- 
count of Scotland, and was ultimately a minister of the church of Scotland. 
