34 FORMATION OF THE SOCIETY : UNPUBLISHED RECORDS. 
perplexing circumstances have to be taken into account, for instance 
a thick bed of sandstone exists in one district, but at a very short 
distance it has become comparatively thin, or has split up into 
several thin beds with intercalating shales. The author further 
suggests that all the sections should be made on the same scale, viz., 
1 inch to 1 yard, and that a uniform scheme of colours should be 
used to indicate the several groups of strata ; the fossils found in 
each successive stratum should be recorded on the sheet opposite the 
stratum from which they have been got ; so that a correct record of 
the horizon and the locality should be secured and confusion pre- 
vented when the specimens were placed in the museum. The several 
strata passed through in sinking the shaft are given in detail, and the 
fossils found in them are stated. In a bed of bituminous shale above 
coal No. 25, "there were found four or five kinds of teeth belonging 
to as many species of fish, and an endless profusion of fragments of 
bones. I have succeeded in obtaining four small jaws (spines) in almost 
a perfect state of preservation with the teeth attached. In passing I 
would remark that this shale is highly bituminous, affording, when 
distilled, an intensely luminous gas and a lar^e proportion of tar. In 
both respects it is not inferior to the best stone coal. This stratum 
is of so peculiar a nature and so decidedly distinct from any other 
stratum in the section that I am led to believe that the same features 
will be found wherever it occurs, and if so will form a good point from 
which to compare other sections." Mr. Enibleton concludes his paper 
by a number of philosophical deductions respecting the formation 
and deposition of the several beds forming the West Riding Coal- 
field. He expresses a strong opinion that the coal seams are the 
result of the growth and decay of vegetation on the area over which 
the coal is now found to extend, whilst of the sandstones and shales 
he is of opinion that they exhibit abundant evidence of having being 
rolled in water, and transported from more or less remote districts 
before being deposited where they are now found. 
On the 3rd of May, 1839, an important meeting of the council 
was held, at which, Messrs. Embleton and Morton were requested to 
confer with the Lancashire Society as to the scales to be adopted for 
sections and plans. An active canvass was decided upon to obtain 
