40 
ON THE OCCURRENCE OF CERTAIN FISH-REMAINS IN THE 
COAL MEASURES, AND THE EVIDENCE THEY AFFORD OF 
FRESH-WATER ORIGIN. BY JAMES W. DAVIS, F.G.S., L.S. 
The objects of this communication are — First, to describe 
a bed of Cannel or Stone Coal existing over a limited' area in 
the West Riding of Yorkshire, and enumerate the remains 
of Fossil Fish which occur in the coal and immediately above 
it ; and secondly, to consider the relation of these fishes to 
each other, and the evidence they afford as to the circumstances 
attending their deposition. 
The Adwalton Stone Coal is situated 400 to 420 feet above 
the Blocking or Silkstone Coal, the latter being taken as the 
division between the Middle and Lower Coal Measures, in 
accordance with the printed memoirs of the Geological 
Survey. The Stone Coal is worked, or has been, over an area 
of about 16 to 20 square miles, at Carlinghow, Gildersome, 
Bruntcliffe, Morley, Tingley, and Ardsley, all being a few 
miles south-west of Leeds. The surface in this district is 
characterised by thick beds of a fine-grained sandstone, the 
Thornhill or Dewsbury Rock, which forms a plateau along 
the tops of the hills, with a slight inclination to the south- 
east. The even slope of this rock is intersected by deep 
valleys formed by the action of numerous streams still running 
in them. The cannel coal lies at a varying depth below the 
surface relatively to the position which the pit occupies, being 
about 200 feet at Ardsley, and at Bruntcliffe 250 ; whilst at 
Carlinghow and Gildersome, the pits being sunk in the valley, 
the depth is only 50 feet. 
The following section may be of service in showing the 
vertical position of the coal : — 
