On the Distribution of Fossil Fishes in the Yorkshire Coal Fields

Abstract

The Coal measures of the West Riding of Yorkshire, until recently have received little attention so far as their palœontology is concerned. Their stratigraphical features have been worked out and developed most carefully, not only by private enterprise for commercial and industrial purposes, but also in a more thorough and scientific manner by the officers of the Geological Survey. The Memoir on the Yorkshire Coal field, recently completed by Prof. Green (now of the Yorkshire College) and his associates, will perhaps take rank as the most elaborate and important work issued by the Survey. The value of this intricate and detailed accumulation of facts cannot be over-estimated, and to the practical miner, or the more philosophical geologist or palœontologist, the book must be one of constant use and reference. Already, the workings in this coal field have been extended considerably under the Permian limestone, which in the earlier days of geological science was thought to be its eastern limit, and pits sunk to the depth of over 1,500 feet have proved that the Silkstone coal exists over a large area, where only the Barnsley coal has previously been got. Indeed, the only eastern limit to the Yorkshire coal field will be caused by the great depth at which the coal lies buried. To the north and west the coal field is encircled by the older beds of the Millstone Grit series. The latter, forced up during a post-carboniferous epoch, form the elevated Penine chain of hills which now separates the ...