( 244 ) 
VIEW OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE ORGANIC REMAINS PREVIOUSLY DESCRIBED 
IN THE STRATA OF THE CARBONIFEROUS SYSTEM. 
It is necessary to observe that no organic fossils have been noticed in this Work which the 
Author has not seen and examined ; all are from the mountain limestone and millstone grit, 
except a few remarkable shells found in a marine calcareous hed interstratified with the estuary 
deposits of the coal formation of Yorkshire, and others from Coalhrookdale and Linlithgow- 
shire, which are found in coalfields probably coeval with the Yoredale rocks. In stating the 
Localities the greatest care has been taken to exclude every thing doubtful ; in fact the Author 
has seen specimens of the species indicated, from the localities named, and the authorities for such 
fossils having heen actually obtained from these localities are either the discoverers themselves, or the 
records of three public museums. These notices of localities might have been greatly expanded, but 
they would not in that case have been so trustworthy : for nothing is less easy than to determine 
positively on the identity of a fossil species by merely looking at a single specimen, while hastily 
reviewing a whole collection ; still less is it safe to quote from carelessly executed engravings, or 
negligently recorded localities ; and it would he utterly 1 subversive of all accuracy to copy the names 
which are ostentatiously placed on the specimens of ill-arranged private or public collections. 
Coal formation ... 
Millstone grit 
Yoredale rocks ... 
Lower scar limestone 
Alternating limestone and red sandstone 
Of fourteen species in the coal formation twelve occur in lower scar limestone. The sixteen 
species in millstone grit occur more abundantly in lower scar limestone. 
Of one hundred species of fossils in the Yoredale rocks seventy-two occur also in the lower scar 
limestone. 
Zoophyta. l’lag. & Mesom. Brachiopoda. Gasteropoda. Cephalopoda. Trilobites. 
10 in 11. 10 in 16. 25 in 29. 9 in 9. 17 in 34. 1 in 1. 
The six specimens mentioned in the alternating red sandstones and limestones occur in the lower 
scar limestone, more abundantly. 
It appears to be in the upper part of the lower scar limestone that the greatest number of fossils of 
all kinds occur : they grow continually less and less plentiful as we ascend in the series of the 
Yoredale rocks, millstone grit, and lower part of the coal measures. In the upper parts of the 
coal series all the species vanish. In the magnesian limestone which lies over the coal, some very 
analogous but probably not identical species are observed ; above this the predominant features 
of the whole series of marine organic forms of the carboniferous period disappear. 
Polypariu. 
Crinoidect. 
Echinida. 
Plagimyona. 
Mesomyona. 
Brachiopoda. \ 
Gasteropoda. 
Cephalopoda. 
Crustacea. 
Total. 
! — 
i 
— 
1 
2 
3 
— 
7 
— 
14 
6 
— 
— 
I 1 
5 
4 
- 
— 
| — 
16 
S 
i 
2 
H 
5 
29 
9 
34 
1 
100 
40 
40 
3 
i 26 
25 
96 
91 
61 
8 
390 
3 
1 
— 
— 
— 1 — 
2 
: — 
6 
