192 
PROCEEDINGS 1841 — 1848. 
the fish shale. The Flockton Stone or Fish Coal is more bituminous 
than the Stanley Coal. It is frequently used in the manufacture of 
gas, but when burned leaves a large quantity of fine brown ashes. A 
resinous substance called Middletonite is found in it, which is sup- 
posed to be of vegetable origin, and has been mentioned in a previous 
chapter. The remains of fislies in this bed, as in the Stanley Shale, 
are disseminated throughout the entire mass, but certain layers may 
be observed in which they are more abundant. The parts are, as in 
the former, all detached. He also found coprolites in the coal, but 
not so well preserved as the former ones. His examples were collected 
from Overton and Middleton. At Dewsbury, compressed shells occur 
in this bed, but the fishes are absent, and he remarks that the fish 
remains seem to be of very local origin, for, whilst they are abundant 
at Sir John Kaye's pit at Overton, none could be found at the pit of 
Messrs. Stansfield and Briggs, a mile distant. Dr. Inglis gave a 
description of the Halifax Hard and Soft Bed Coals, with the general 
character of the fauna and flora which cliaracterised them, remarking 
on the peculiar fact that in the same pit at one time is discovered a 
conglomeration of marine remains, as of Goniatites, Nautilus, Ortho- 
ceras, Pectens, etc., whilst a little lower down in the same series we 
come upon a whole stratum of fresh water mussels, and these in such 
a perfect state of preservation as to lead to the inference that they 
were embedded during a period of considerable tranquility. He 
remarked upon the necessity of combining the invaluable information 
which had been secured in mining operations in the "West Riding, 
for, with the exception of two or three short essays in the proceed- 
ings of this Society and some observations in the Encyclopoed'm 
Metyopolitana, he knew of no other published accounts of this coal- 
field. His paper concluded with a description of a new species of 
Xautilus which he had found in the shales in the upper of the Halifax 
Coal Beds. The fossil was the property, and was located in the 
Museum, of the Halifax Literary and Philosophical Society, after 
whose late president and founder Dr. Inglis had named it. Nautilus 
Rawsoni. 
At the first meeting of the Society in March, 1844, a paper was 
contributed by Mr. E. \V. Binney, of Manchester, in which he des- 
