158 
THE MUSEUM OF THE SOCIETY. 
remain to be arranged ; but these specimens, excellent and unique as 
many of them are of their kind, illustrate but a small part, and that 
imperfectly, of the Coal-field. They consist of a few remains of 
fishes and of shells, of various species of calamites, sphenopteris, 
neuropteris, pecopteris, lepidodendron, ulodendron, lepidostrobus, 
sigillaria, &c., some of which are quite new ; specimens illustrative 
of strata passed through in sinking shafts, and specimens of building 
stones." Mr. Embleton next proceeds to enumerate those objects 
essentially necessary to render the museum practically useful. A 
complete collection of the fossil-fish remains found in the district ; it 
is on the roof of the coal that the greater portion of the^e remains 
have been found ; they do not frequently exist at any great height 
above the coal, but just where the coal separates from the stone. 
" The search for them is best made when the coal has been recently 
removed and the roof is smooth. We should be careful to note under 
what circumstances they exist in the greatest abundance, and whether, 
as up to this period has always been held, they are nowhere present 
in the roof of the coal except it contains a notable proportion of 
bitumen." The relative abundance of fish remains above cannel and 
common coal is a subject of interest amongst others. The most 
perfect specimens of fishes are in the Leeds Museum ; they were 
obtained from Middleton Main and Low Moor beds, and these beds 
should supply specimens for the Wakefield Museum. The Flockton 
Collieries, Rothwell Haigh, the roof of the Stanley Shale Coal, and 
others are rich in fish remains ; and probably they may be found in 
greater or less abundance over nearly the whole of the Yorkshire Coal 
seams. Fossil shells are wanted, they are fairly abundant. Some 
extend for miles in a continuous layer ; others are found imbedded 
in shale one by one in a peculiar manner, the hinge always being the 
lowest, &c., others in ironstone. Do the fish and shells occur in the 
same beds, and are they associated with Entomostraca ? The fossil 
remains of plants were much needed. The microscopical investigation 
of the structure of fossil plants was at that time unknown, and the 
author laments the entire absence of all those data which guide a 
botanist in the investigation of recent plants. 
Collections of minerals, coal, iron, lead, copper, building stones 
