Burdiehouse Limestone Research Articles

Tetrapod appendicular skeletal elements from the Early Carboniferous of Scotland

Tetrapod postcranial bones are described from Scotland: from the Limestone Coal Group (Early Carboniferous, Serpukhovian) at the Dora open cast site, Fife, and from beds equivalent to the Burdiehouse Limestone (Early Carboniferous, Visean) on the island of Inchkeith, Firth of Forth. The elements from Dora are derived relative to Devonian and Tournaisian tetrapods in having a diamond-shaped interclavicle with no parasternal process, a humerus with a triangular-shaped entepicondyle, a rod-like ilium lacking a post-iliac process and a gracile femur with a prominent internal trochanter but no adductor blade. These bones share characters with their homologues in colosteids and temnospondyls and may be attributable to Doragnathus woodi. The femur from Inchkeith most closely resembles that of the embolomere Proterogyrinus scheelei.

Stratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental significance of microbial carbonates in the Asbian Sandy Craig Formation of Fife

Synopsis This study concentrates on Viséan Strathclyde Group microbial carbonates from the eastern Midland Valley of Scotland. In the largely non-marine Sandy Craig and West Lothian Oil-Shale formations persistent lithostratigraphical marker horizons, such as distinct microbial carbonates, are used to aid correlation of sequences where conventional biostratigraphy is limited to the identification of infrequent marine bands. In the newly described Rosyth core, microbial carbonates above the Burdiehouse Limestone are correlated with microbial horizons at Kingswood (Fife) and Inchkeith (Firth of Forth), a correlation supported by the presence of the bivalve Curvirimula scotica. The revised position of the Inchkeith microbial horizon to 20–30 m above the Burdiehouse Limestone contradicts earlier correlations of the Inchkeith sequences with the Burdiehouse Limestone. The microbial carbonates represent littoral and sublittoral zone stromatolites growing in <20 m of water. The best modern analogues are stromatolites forming in East African Rift Valley lakes. These microbial carbonates formed in volcanically isolated shallow sub-basins or in association with delta progradation. Lavas and tuffs provided stable substrates free of clastic sediment for stromatolite nucleation, and their weathering may have enhanced Ca 2+ ion activity to promote carbonate precipitation. These lacustrine microbial carbonates cannot be implicitly linked with climatic events or basin-wide regression as has been proposed for a regionally persistent microbial carbonate below the Burdiehouse Limestone.

Palaeoenvironmental and stratigraphic significance of worm burrow linings from the Lower Oil-Shale Group (Dinantian) of West Lothian

In an earlier paper, one of us drew attention to tube-like microproblematica as unusual, but potentially valuable, environmental and stratigraphic indicators in British Jurassic lagoonal deposits ([Andrews 1986][1]). In this note we develop the theme of the earlier paper by describing tube-like microproblematica in Upper Palaeozoic rocks, the Lower Oil-Shale Group of Dinantian age, in West Lothian, Central Scotland. It is suggested that shallow-lagoonal environments have been important habitats for small infaunal worms during much of Phanerozoic time. The Oil-Shale Group rocks mainly represent deposition of fluvio-deltaic and non-marine lagoonal sediments and the lithologies are dominated by sandstones, shales and dolostones. Although occasional, thin, marine horizons occur (e.g. the Pumpherston Shell-Bed), fossil assemblages are dominated by fish remains, bivalves, gastropods, conchostracans, spirorbid worms, ostracodes, cyanobacteria, calcareous green- and phytoplanktonic-algae, representing a non-marine fauna and flora. Tube-like microproblematica have been known from the Lower Oil Shale Group of West Lothian for almost a century ([Cadell 1906][2]; [Carruthers 1912][3]; [Greensmith 1960][4]; [Loftus 1985][5]). They occur in the Queensferry Beds of [Mitchell and Mykura (1962)][6] including dolostones (the ‘Bogwood Limestones’ of [Loftus 1985][5]) some ten metres below the Burdiehouse Limestone, the base of which divides the Upper and Lower Oil Shale Groups ([Francis 1983][7]). The tubes are seen at two localities, beds 1 and 68 of [Maddox and Andrews (1987][8], Fig. 4) on the southern foreshore of the Firth of Forth at South Queensferry [NT 140 785], and beds 1 and 52 on the southern foreshore of the Firth of Forth near Hopetoun . . . [1]: #ref-1 [2]: #ref-2 [3]: #ref-3 [4]: #ref-6 [5]: #ref-8 [6]: #ref-10 [7]: #ref-5 [8]: #ref-9

The lacustrine Burdiehouse Limestone Formation—a key to the deposition of the Dinantian Oil Shales of Scotland

Summary Oil shales, and the less common limestones associated with them, represent freshwater lacustrine phases within the Dinantian Oil Shale Group at the eastern end of the Midland Valley of Scotland. The understanding of the areally extensive Burdiehouse Limestone Formation is fundamental to an appreciation of the palaeolimnology of the lake in which algal oozes (consisting mainly of planktonic algae analogous to the modern form Botryococcus braunii ), later to become oil shales, accumulated. The lake, referred to as Lake Cadell, was shallow (< 100 m) with gently sloping margins. It was meromictic and formed a closed system during deposition of the limestones, draining eastwards to the sea during oil shale deposition. The climate was wet tropical ensuring ideal conditions for a prolific flora of algae and vascular plants both around and within the lake, and providing a regular freshwater input. The lacustrine phase forms part of the cyclical Oil Shale Group succession in which each sedimentary cycle can be resolved into four phases indicating long-term lake expansion and contraction.

Lithofacies and stratigraphy of a Dinantian non-marine dolostone from the Lower Oil-Shale Group of Fife and West Lothian.

Synopsis A Dinantian Lower Oil-Shale Group sedimentary rock sequence from Colinswell in the Burntisland district of Fife contains sandstones, shales and carbonate rocks. From facies analysis the sandstones are interpreted as proximal deltaic channel-mouth bars whilst the shales and carbonates represent low-salinity interdistributary bay facies. One distinctive dolostone unit which is laminated and brecciated is interpreted as a former stromatolitic mudflat which underwent subaerial exposure and desiccation. Given the general stratigraphic position of this sequence between the established marker horizons of the Burntisland Marine Band (= Pumpherston Shell Bed) and the Burdiehouse Limestone, rocks of similar age, the Queensferry Beds, were studied at outcrop in West Lothian. At both South Queensferry and Hopetoun (West Lothian) a remarkably similar dolostone unit to that at Burntisland was identified within the Queensferry Beds. It is proposed that these dolostone beds are lateral equivalents, formed during a basin-wide ‘regressive event’. Correlation of the dolostones not only improves the local Lower Oil-Shale Group stratigraphy, it provides a time marker from which to analyse local facies variation in the underlying and overlying delta-derived sandstones.

Temporary exposures in the Calciferous Sandstone Measures of East Fife

Temporary exposures contribute to show that the anticlinal area inland from Anstruther to Crail is formed by a group of non-marine beds including limestone and oil-shale. Thin floral and faunal bands resemble those of the Burdiehouse Limestone of Midlothian but are not of a kind to permit exact correlation.

III.— An Algal Breccia-conglomeratic Limestone in the Oil Shale Group, Burntisland, Fife

1. Introduction The object of this short communication is to draw attention to what appears to be an uncommon variety of limestone which is exposed in a small bluff, about 15 ft. high and about 80 ft. long, just above high water level at Colinswell, 1,300 ft. to the north-north-west of Ross Point, Burntisland. The outcrop, on the southern side of the Aberdour-Burntisland railway line, is only fully accessible at low tide. No detailed account of the nature and possible significance of this limestone has been traced in the literature and there is even an element of doubt about its precise position in the local Oil Shale Group succession. The geometrical relationship to the overlying Burdiehouse Limestone which dips at 5 to 15 degrees to the north, and was once well exposed 1,500 ft. inland (Geikie, 1900, p. 46), suggests a position approximately 400 ft. further down the succession. A comparison with the more fully recorded succession 7 miles to the south-west, south of the Firth of Forth (Carruthers, 1927, p. 81), indicates a horizon possibly below the Queensferry Cements. At Colinswell, the limestone and associated beds dip at 10 to 15 degrees north-west and the following section can be observed:— 2. Nature of the Limestone The most distinctive feature of the limestone is its well-bedded nature, on which is superimposed a marked and persistent lamination. The laminae are particularly evident towards the base of each unit, and are due to relatively rapid fluctuations in amount of carbonaceous matter and This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract The author wishes to thank Professor A. Wood for critically examining thin-sections of the limestones and confirming the presence of Ortonella, and Miss P. Holmes for drawing the line diagrams. The work was partly financed by the Central Research Funds of the University of London.

VII.—Assemblages of Small Spores from the Lower Oil-shale Group of Scotland

SynopsisAssemblages of small spores are described from the Pumpherston Shell Bed, the Pumpherston Oil Shales, the Burdiehouse Limestone and a thin coal found within the latter rock in one locality, all from the Lower Oil-shale Group (Viséan) of the Lower Carboniferous of Scotland.The assemblages from the Oil-shales and the Limestone, rocks generally regarded as being of non-marine origin, are found to be very much alike; and although they show some differences from that of the Pumpherston Shell Bed (a marine shale), all three assemblages have a general similarity of composition. A suggested relation is put forward between this uniformity and the conditions prevailing in the area of the Midland Valley of Scotland during deposition of the beds. Correlation with other areas is discussed. Five new species and ten new types are described.

SOME REEF-BUILDING CALCAREOUS ALGAE FROM THE CARBONIFEROUS ROCKS OF NORTHERN ENGLAND AND SOUTHERN SCOTLAND

( Read, February , 1948). The various growth-forms assumed by algal colonies are described and it is suggested that they are determined primarily by environmental factors. A study of the sediments associated with these growth-forms indicates that reef-building algae flourished in shallow, disturbed water, rich in silica and iron. Periods of vulcanicity appear to produce an environment favourable to algal growth. Three main algal phases in the Lower Carboniferous rocks of northern England and southern Scotland are described,—the main Algal Series of C1, the Burdiehouse Limestone horizon in S1 and the Girvanella -bearing limestones at the top of D1. A number of new growth-forms are described. According to Pia’s classification of the fossil algae ( in Hirmer, 1927) the group Spongiostromata includes the more massive reef-building forms such as Weedia Walcott, Collenia Walcott, Cryptozoon Hall, Archaeozoon Matthew, Gymnosolen Steinmann, Pycnostroma Gurich, Wingia Seely, Osagia Twenhofel, Ottonosia Twenhofel and Spongiostroma Gurich. With the exception of Spongiostroma these generic names refer to a variety of growth forms, which, it is suggested, represent the remains of algal colonies. When Pia’s account was published none of these, with the possible exception of Cryptozoon , could be demonstrated to possess any undoubted algal structures such as are seen in the similar, but more recent, Corallinaceae (e.g. Lithothamnium ). The recent work of Johnson (1946), however, has shown that some of these growth-forms represent the shapes assumed by the aggregate of a number of algal filaments not always all of the same kind, which suggests that they are the remains of ...

XII.—Scottish Carboniferous Ostracoda

The first known fossil Ostracoda were collected by the Rev. David Ure from the Carboniferous Limestone of East Kilbride. In 1793 he figured his specimens, describing them merely as “microscopic shells.” Some years later Dr S. Hibbert (1836) described and figured as Cypris scotoburdigalensis some Ostracoda he had collected from the Burdiehouse Limestone near Edinburgh. The most important work on this group of fossils was done by T. R. Jones. In 1866, together with J. W. Kirkby, he gave a short account of previous research, and from 1855 until 1901 published a large number of papers, either alone or in collaboration with J. W. Kirkby, H. B. Holl and others, mainly in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. In 1927 Dr Hopkins used an ostracod bed for correlation purposes in the Northumberland and Durham Coalfield, and in 1931 W. B. Wright observed that the ostracods show a definite succession of forms. A new species described by Wright as Cytherella foveolata occurs at the top of the Pulchra Zone and may be of zonal significance since it has not so far been recognised in any other horizon.

On certain localities for oil-bearing shale near Edinburgh

The purpose of this communication is to record the occurrence of oil shales, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, in the groups of rocks called the Wardie Shales and Granton Sandstones, which, until lately, have been considered barren of such beds. In the resurvey of the oil-shale fields of Midlothian and Linlithgow by Mr Cadell between 1884 and 1887, the Pumpherston Shales, which lie 800 feet below the Burdiehouse Limestone, were taken as the base of the oil-shale group, and the rocks lying between this horizon and the basement beds of the Carboniferous were separated as a lower part of the Calciferous Sandstone series. The divisions of Hailes Sandstones, Wardie Shales, and Granton Sandstones in descending order, as demonstrated by Mr John Henderson for these lower rocks exposed between Edinburgh and the Lothian oil-shale field, were then adopted. We can find no description referring to oil shales in papers on the Geology of the Wardie Shales and Granton Sandstones. An oil shale was recorded by Mr Henderson in the river Almond section in association with sandstones, which he considered as belonging to the Hailes Sandstone group, which intervene between the Wardie Shales and the oil-shale series. Mr Henderson refers to this shale in the following words: “The shale here is interesting from the fact that it is a paraffin shale and is the lowest oil shale, as far as I am aware, of any considerable thickness, that has been met with in the lower carboniferous rocks of the district. A thickness

Excursions for Seasons 1906 and 1907

To New Collieries at Olive Bank and New Craighall, Niddrie, Midlothian, on Saturday, 24th March—Mr. Robert Martin, manager, conductor—a joint excursion with Edinburgh Geological Society. For a description of these Collieries see a paper by Mr. Martin in the recently published part (vol. viii., part 3) of the Transactions of the Edinburgh Geological Society. To South Queensferry, Linlithgowshire, on Saturday, 7th April—Mr. H. M. Cadell of Grange, B.Sc., conductor—a joint excursion with Edinburgh Geological Society. Oil shales and the Burdiehouse Limestone, with intrusive igneous rocks. To Aberfoyle, Perthshire, on Saturday, 7th April—Mr. Peter Macnair, hon. secretary, conductor. The party entered the Loch Katrine Aqueduct where it cuts through the boundary fault, and proceeding northwards passed successively through the jasper beds, the black shales and cherts, and the grits. They then returned and examined the rocks on the south side of the fault; these include limestones, conglomerates of Old Red Sandstone age, and a bed of vesicular andesite interbedded with the conglomerates. To Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire, on Monday, 16th April (Spring Holiday)—Mr, Peter Macnair, hon. secretary, conductor. In the Upper Silurian inlier of Lesmahagow, the rocks are folded into a dome-shaped anticline, with the Wenlock rocks in the centre. These pass upwards into the Ludlow, Downtonian, and Old Red Sandstone formations. The party went by the Birkenhead Burn and returned by the Logan Water. An opportunity was thus given of examining the general structure of the inlier, and of visiting the principal fossiliferous horizons. To Kilmacolm, Renfrewshire, on Saturday, 21st April—Mr. Alex. This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract

On the Genus Megalichthys, Agassiz: Its History, Systematic Position, and Structure

INTRODUCTION. At the meeting of the British Association, held at Edinburgh in 1834, Dr. Hibbert read a paper before the Geological Section on a series of fossil remains found in the Burdiehouse limestone, near Edinburgh. These contained a series of fish remains, among which, besides Gyracanthus, Palaeoniscus, Erynotus, Pygopterus, were some bones, scales, and teeth, remarkable for their great size, and also some smaller rhombic enamelled scales.* Prof. Agassiz being present the remains were submitted to him for his opinion. They proving new and strange to him, he, Drs. Hibbert and Buckland formed a committee to report on them. About this time Agassiz, whilst on a visit to Leeds, saw in the Museum there a fine and well-preserved head and part of the trunk of a fish, which he seems to have considered of the same species as the Burdiehouse remains. This new find having relieved his doubts concerning the Burdiehouse fish, he took the Leeds specimen as the type of his genus Megalichthys, and at that time included the large rounded scales and gigantic teeth, as well as the smaller rhombic enamelled scales, in this genus. Later, however, he separated the large rounded scales and the teeth, placing them in a new genus Holoptychius. † It is very unfortunate that Agassiz made the Leeds fish his type, as undoubtedly the name Megalichthys was suggested to him by the great size of the Burdiehouse remains, for which in 1840* Prof. Owen instituted the genus Rhizodus. Systematic Position.—Agassiz classed Megalichthys in ...

IV.—Remarks on the Genus Megalichthys, Agassiz, with Description of a New Species

There can be no doubt that the name Megalichthys was originally suggested to Agassiz by the gigantic teeth of the great round-scaled fish first brought into notice by the researches of Dr. Hibbert, in the quarries of Burdiehouse, though indeed some of its remains had long previously been figured by Ure in his “History of Rutherglen and East Kilbride.” Incontrovertible evidence of this may be found by referring to the Proceedings of the British Association for 1834, and to Dr. Hibbert's original memoir on the Burdiehouse Limestone published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. xiii. 1835. But with the remains of this enormous creature were also associated and confounded certain rhombic glistening scales, belonging really to a considerably smaller fish of a totally different genus, and when Agassiz, subsequently to the meeting of the British Association at Edinburgh in the year above quoted, found in the Museum at Leeds a head of this latter form, or at least of an allied species, he adopted it, by description and by figure, as the type of his Megalichthys Hibberti, relegating the other to the genus Holoptychius. This latter, the real “big fish,” is now known as Rhizodus Hibberti, the founder of the genus being Prof. Owen; and though it may be a matter of regret that it did not retain the name Megalichthys, the laws of zoological nomenclature do not admit of any alteration now.

Note on a section recently exposed near Straiton

The excavations in progress at the new brickworks, half a mile to the east of Straiton, furnish an opportunity for examining a series of beds, of which this is probably the best if not the only exposure in the immediate vicinity of Edinburgh. I have twice gone over the ground in company with Mr Henderson (whose assistance I take this opportunity of gratefully acknowledging), and we agree in placing these beds in the upper part of the Burdiehouse division of the Calciferous Sandstone series. The strata between the Burdiehouse Limestone and the First Marine or Gilmerton Limestone, the conventional boundary established by the Geological Survey of Scotland between the Calciferous Sandstones and the Carboniferous Limestone series, were surveyed and mapped by Mr Howell, and in the explanation of Sheet 32, the map of the Edinburgh district, we have the first description of importance of what I find convenient to designate the ‶Upper Burdiehouse Series.″ Since the date of the publication of the Survey’s Memoir in 1861, much additional information has accumulated relative to this uppermost member of the Calciferous Sandstone Series. Railways both on the east and west of the Pentlands have been constructed, intersecting it at various points; and the rise and growth of the great oil industry have provided fresh material of interest, both to the palaeontologist and to the physical geologist. Subsequent to the publication of the Memoir, appeared a ‶Descriptive Catalogue of Rock Specimens collected by the Geological Survey of Scotland, and exhibited in the Edinburgh

On our Present Knowledge of the Invertebrate Fauna of the Lower Carboniferous or Calciferous Sandstone Series of the Edinburgh Neighbourhood, especially of that Division known as the Wardie Shales; and on the First Appearance of certain Species in these Beds

Little or no attention has been paid to the organic remains of the great series of strata below the Gilmerton or No. 1 Limestone of the Midlothian coal-field (adopted as the conventional base of the Carboniferous Limestone series by the Geological Survey), when compared with the numerous papers and other publications bearing on the fossils of the overlying strata or Carboniferous Limestone Series . It is true the fishes were examined by Agassiz*, and the plants to some extent by Lindley and Hutton, but in both cases only to a limited extent. Dr. Hibbert's celebrated paper on the Burdiehouse Limestone appears to have been the first memoir in which any systematic observations were recorded; and, with the exception of a few miscellaneous publications in the interim, it was not until the Geological Survey broke ground in the Edinburgh neighbourhood that any further detailed work of this nature was undertaken. We have the result of Mr. Salter's examination of a collection of fossils made by Messrs. R. Gibbs and W. Rhind during Prof. Geikie's survey of the district, in the Appendix to the ‘Geology of the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh.’ Notwithstanding that Mr. Salter's observations were confined to a mere list of the species obtained by the collectors, there can be no doubt that his were the first systematically carried out, and that they laid the foundation for future research. In this communication I propose to give :—first, a summary of our present knowledge of the Invertebrate Fauna of the Calciferous Sandstone series

1. On New and Little-known Fossil Fishes from the Edinburgh District. No. III

Elonichthys ovatus, sp. nov. Traquair.Of this I have only seen one specimen, from the limestone of Burdiehouse, and preserved in the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art.Description.—Allowing for the anterior part of the head, which is deficient, the entire length of the specimen to the extreme point of the upper lobe of the caudal fin would be about 5⅝ inches; the greatest depth of the body in front of the dorsal fin is 1½ inch. The distance from the origin of the pectoral fin to that of the ventral is a little over 1 inch, to opposite the commencement of the dorsal 1¼ inch, to opposite that of the anal 1½ inch, and to opposite that of the lower lobe of the caudal nearly 3 inches. The general form of the fish is thus remarkably short, deep, and ovoid, and its general appearance does not indicate that its peculiar form is due to post mortem distortion or change.

Description of a section of the Burdiehouse Limestone and connected strata in Grange Quarry, Burntisland

Within the last few months another exposure of the Burdiehouse Limestone has taken place at the Grange Quarry, near Burntisland, and as opportunities of studying the strata in connection with this far-famed bed of limestone do not appear to occur as often as formerly, I have taken advantage of this new exposure to lay the few following details before you. As doubtless known to many members of this Society, the Grange Quarry is situated on the road from Burntisland to Aberdour, about three-quarters of a mile from the former, and near the small village of Kirkton. The quarry appears to have been worked for some time past for the sake of the overlying sandstone, used for building purposes, but in the present south-west corner of the quarry an exposure of the limestone and overlying beds has been made, where the following generalised section may be seen:— 1. Thin capping of boulder clay. 2. Sandstone, very thick. 3. Thick-bedded flaggy shales, about 12 feet. 4. Thin friable black shales, about 3 feet. 5. Flaggy shales (similar to No. 3), about 2 feet. 6. Thin friable black shales, about 6 feet. 7. Limestone, 12 feet exposed. The sandstone (No. 1) forming the upper part of the section appears to be of a medium texture and light coloured. It is apparently here and there divided by thin partings of a more shaly character, and in places is crammed with the remains of plants and other vegetable matter, chiefly as semi-decayed fragments, doubtless indicating long maceration in water. From the fragmentary

On the discovery of Spirorbis carbonarius in the limestone of Burdiehouse; and of an Estheria in Camstone Quarry, Arthur’s Seat

When with the members of the Edinburgh Naturalists’ Field Club at Burdiehouse, on the 16th of April last, I found amongst the limestone taken from that famed quarry a stone containing specimens of Spirorbis carbonarius attached to a narrow ribbon-like plant, and on the same stone a portion of a very beautiful Lepidodendron, which I believe to be undescribed: I reserve more about it until better specimens turn up. My friend, Mr David Grieve, F.S.A. Scot., of Leith, has since shown me a fine slab of limestone, also from Burdiehouse, covered with the same Spirorbis, and I have during the summer found it again two or three times thus, showing it not to be very rare there. On referring to the lists of carboniferous fossils in ‶The Geology of the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh,″ by A. Geikie, Esq., director of the Geological Survey of Scotland, I find this Spirorbis noted as found at Clubbiedean reservoir, and at Inchkeith, but not at Burdiehouse. I am therefore desirous that it should be recorded as occurring there, not because it is an addition only, but that it adds also to the evidence, showing that with ‶the Cypris or Cythere, which is quite as likely to have been a marine crustacean, and the Cypridina (or Daphnoidea ) Hibberii, which was in all probability marine also,″* that the limestone of Burdiehouse was, if not marine, undoubtedly deposited in ‶brackish water,″ and not in fresh water only, according to Hibbert in his Memoir, published in the Transactions of

Notice of sandbed occurring in boulder clay at Newpark, in the parish of Mid-Calder

The district of the three Calders, East, Mid, and West, but particularly of the two latter, is, like many other parts of Mid-Lothian, almost entirely covered with boulder clay. It is popularly known there as ‶blue″ clay, from its decidedly bluish colour, although occasional yellowish patches occur; it is very tenacious, and bricks and tiles are readily made out of it. In some places, such as at Auchengray, this clay is purer and more free from pebbles than at others; but, generally speaking, there are not many pebbles in it, and when the machine called a ‶brazier″ is used, they form a small impediment in brick or tile making. The depth of the deposit of clay at Newpark is about 18 feet, resting immediately upon the limestone, which is there the base-bed, and having scarcely any covering of surface soil. The effect of this clay or ‶till″ upon agriculture is very apparent, and, without drainage, little good can be expected. It also forms a serious difficulty to satisfactory geological survey and investigation, so closely does it enwrap the subjacent strata. On the map of the Geological Survey, published in 1859, the whole Calder district is coloured as ‶Lower Carboniferous Sandstone, and Shale, and Burdiehouse Limestone.″ No special localities are mentioned as productive of any of these three staples of the locality—sandstone, shale, and limestone; but, in truth, as to shale, it had scarcely begun to be worked when the Survey map was published. At the present date, as testified by