PROCEEDINGS 1841 — 1848. 
169 
uot hitherto been described, and the paper exhibits evidence of much 
research and outdoor investigation. Situated westward of the Coal- 
field proper, the Parish of Halifax presents a bold and mountainous 
aspect ; tlie deeply excavated and sloping valleys contrasting well 
with the outlines of the hilly ridges. Whilst the coals are thin and 
comparatively unimportant, the sandstone and flag quarries gave 
employment to 1,200 persons, and furnislied large supplies of freestone, 
and flagstone or slate. The several measures of the Millstone Grits and 
Lower Coal Pleasures were traced through the parish ; together with a 
description of the localities near Todmorden and Hebden Bridge, 
where the formation of the railway line had exhibited highly fossil- 
iferous Yoredale Shales and thin Limestones. From these, Mr. J. 
Gibson of Hebden Bridge, collected more than one hundred species 
of moUusca. In a letter addressed to Dr. Alexander, Mr. Gibson 
gives the following details of the discovery of the fossils. " In the 
railway excavation at Millwood near Todmorden, the shale is of a 
bluish-gTey colour, and very smooth to the touch ; it contains several 
fossils not found in any other locality, particularly Goniatites proteus, 
which is in shapeless masses of dark-coloured limestone. This stone 
is full of shells laid in every direction, and strongly cemented 
together, so that it is almost impossible to procure perfect specimens. 
In Hoolebottom Clough a few fossils of rare occurrence are met with, 
but our favourite localities are Crims worth Dean and Higher ood, 
where most of the fossils, recorded in a list appended to the paper, 
were obtained. The shales here constitute three principal varieties ; 
first, blue-grey, coarse-grained and micaeous, containing no organic 
remains, but iron-pyrites in a nodular form ; second, black sandy 
and coarse-grained, containing a few crinoidal columns ; third, very 
dark-coloured and fine-grained, containing vegetable remains, such 
as lepidodendron, calamites, &c. In the same shale are shapeless 
masses of hard limestone, containing besides dicotyledonous wood, a 
heterogenous mass of shells, such as orthoceras, nautilus, goniatites, 
melania, buccinum, pecten, inoceramus, &c., some of them in a 
beautiful state of preservation." 
Having given a description of the strata of the parisli, Dr. 
Alexander stated that " the loose soils, beds of gravel, and porous 
p 
