39 
NOTES ON THE OCCURRENCE OF FOSSIL FISH REMAINS IN 
THE CARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONE SERIES OF YORKSHIRE. 
BY JAMES W. DAVIS, F.G.S. 
The fish remains of the Mountain Limestone of Yorkshire are not 
numerous, neither are they found in a great number of localities. 
If the great area of the western and northern portions of the 
county be taken into consideration, which are more or less occu- 
pied by the Mouutiin Limestone, extending from Clitheroe and 
Slaidburn, Thornton, Skipton, to Greenhow Hill in the south, to 
the limits of the county westwards and northwards, and that in all 
these localities, and very many others, the rock is exposed and 
excavated for commercial and agricultural purposes, in quarries of 
enormous extent, there can remain but one conclusion, that whilst 
these rocks are replete with fossil moUusca, corals and encrinites 
there appears to have been a most remarkable absence of fishes in 
the seas of that period. The non-discovery may be attributed to 
a want of interest in this branch of palaeontology, on the part of 
collectors, who may perhaps have been more deeply interested in 
the collection of the beautiful and perfectly preserved specimens 
of fossil brachiopods, corals and others which abound in many 
localities, largely quarried, whilst the less known and infinitely 
rarer remains of fishes have been neglected. Not\\ithstanding 
this disadvantage there seems to be little doubt that the absolute 
sterility of most localities must be attributed to the absence of 
fossil remains rather that than the need of collectors, and we are 
driven to the conclusion that, only in few localities and on special 
horizons have fishes been preserved in a fossil state. The reason 
for this peculiar arrangement opens a wide field for most interest- 
ting speculation. It would appear improbable that during- the 
deposition of the strata containing fish-remains there was an 
abundant ichthyic fauna in the carboniferous seas, extending only 
over a comimritively limited area, and existing only for a sufficient 
period to accumulate, in most cases, a very thin stratum of lime- 
