Notes on the Palæontology

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Abstract
Introduction. I t has been known for some time that thin bands containing marine shells occur in several coalfields, and from time to time figures and descriptions have been published. Among the earliest of these publications were Sowerby's descriptions and figures of the marine mollusca from the Pennystone Ironstone of Coalbrookdale, in Prestwich's memoir. Perhaps the other most important publication is that by Mr. George Wild, in which a large number of marine mollusca were figured. So well known was the occurrence of marine fossils, as distinct from the bands of Carbonicola, Anthracomya , and Naiadites , that Prof. Hull, in his paper on ‘The Upper Limit of the Essentially-Marine Beds of the Carboniferous Group of the British Isles’, included the Gannister Series or Lower Coal-Measures with the Millstone Grits and the series of shales and black limestones below them, which he erroneously correlated with the Yoredale Series of Wensleydale. This classification is obviously unsound; (1) because the Gannister Series is not wholly marine in origin, for it contains beds in which the marine fauna is absent; and (2) a marine fauna is not limited to the Gannister Series, but recurs at several horizons in the middle portion of the Coal-Measures, which are therefore not ‘essentially freshwater or estuarine beds.’ Indeed, there is an unbroken succession from the base of the Pendleside Series to the top of the Coal-Measures, at times marine, at times estuarine, or of freshwater origin. This thick series contains two distinct molluscan faunas, which recur with irregular alternations. One

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