XVIII. Discovery of Upper Coal Measure Fossils in Ayrshire

Abstract

On 9th April, 1907, I examined some debris which had been put out from a pit sinking between Auchenleck and Ochiltree, and found some of it crowded with the remains of plants. As this sinking is to be a deep one, I advised Mr. Clough, of the Geological Survey, to have an examination made of all the material brought up. I am glad to say that this is being done, so that in two or three years hence we will likely have one of the best records of rocks and fossils from any sinking in the Coal Measures, at least in Scotland. The material put out was quite different from anything I had seen from a pit sinking, and in no open section in the district are similar rocks to be observed, the strata in this locality being thickly covered with shelly drift. At that time the sinking was about 66 fathoms, and I noted the following varieties of rocks on the bing:— Rocks. Brown mudstones, crumbling on exposure. Bright and dull-red mudstones, crumbling. Light grey mudstones. Dirty yellow mudstones. Purple mudstones, with yellow blotches, some of the blotches with minute purple nodules. Hard, brown kingle. Purple sandstone, with globular parts, where the colour had been discharged. White sandstone, with minute black spots. Dark purple sandstone, with irregular white blotches; a very fantastic-looking rock. Brown sandstone, with minute spots. Dark grey sandstone. Sandstone, with carious hollows. Hard, irony-looking band, 7 inches thick, but probably with very little This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract