DURNFORD : DEEP BORING NEAR SELBY. 
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was a bed of fire-clay four feet in thickness. Beds of fire-clay 
were also passed through at 1,760 feet and 1,776 feet, being 
one foot and four feet thick respectively. The stone, bind and 
shales occurring between 2,000 feet and 2,040 feet yielded an 
adundant fossil flora of the type so common in the Coal Measures. 
A considerable number of the ferns were submitted to Mr. 
Robert Kidston, who identified the following species : — Sphen- 
opteris, sp. Neuropteris heterophylla, N. tenuifolia, Alethopteris 
decurrens, and A. lonchitica. Numerous calamites and some 
stigmaria and rootlets were also obtained from the cores. Mr. 
Kidston said that from the character of the ferns he was dis- 
tinctly of the opinion that they had been obtained from Middle 
Coal Measure strata, probably well up in the series. It may 
be mentioned that this was also the opinion of ^Ir. Walcot 
Gibson, of the Geological Survey. At 2,100 feet a fresh water 
bed was proved containing fairly numerous lamellibranchs, viz. : — 
Anthracomya sp. and Anthracosia acuta. The writer believes 
geologists place considerable reliance on these fresh-water mollusca 
as a means of zoning the Coal Measures, and that in some coal- 
fields a fair amount of success has attended their endeavours. 
Unfortunately, the species found at Barlow are, the writer 
believes, common throughout the Coal Measures, and are there- 
fore of little value in this respect. It has been thought that the 
marine bands might be useful as a guide in correlating the fresh- 
water beds, and in passing the writer might mention that the 
Pterinopecten and the goniatite impressions obtained from the 
marine band at 1,500 feet bear a very close resemblance to fossils 
obtained from a boring at Wentbridge, near Pontefract. The 
writer was indebted to Mr. E. L. Hummel, now of Whitwood 
Colliery, in that he was enabled to exhibit the two sets of fossils 
side by side, and to show that they were almost indistinguishable. 
Whether this fact is of any particular significance is more a 
question for a geologist than for a mining engineer. 
A coal seam, three feet thick, was met with at 2,120 feet. 
A core was obtained, but the coal was very hard and apparently 
of inferior quality. The seam was underlaid by eight feet of 
fire-clay. The cores obtained from the last 200 feet or so were 
considerabty broken up, and at some places — particularly at 
