This has rendered necessary the establishment of several new species, although I have endeavoured to avoid this as much as possible.
The occurrence of beds of shale, in the Calciferous Sandstone series of this neighbourhood, with fossils of a decidedly marine facies has, I think, been little noticed. That containing the greatest variety of species, the Woodhall Shale, was in all probability known to the earlier geological explorers of Edinburgh; but its very marked marine character was not so definitely ascertained until its exploration was undertaken by Messrs. Henderson and Bennie. Dr. Page read a paper at the British-Association Meeting in 1855 "On the Freshwater Limestone of Dr. Hibbert," in which he insisted that, although the Burdiehouse Limestone in its palæontological features was of undoubted freshwater origin, still in the series there are bands containing marine fossils[1]—a point which has been fully borne out by later researches. Mr. Henderson has obtained from the Woodhall shale at least 17 well-defined species, and Mr. Bennie about the same number. Of these, 10 are afterwards met with and become characteristic of the true marine Carboniferous Limestone, and 3 or 4 doubtfully so.
Description of the Species.
Class ACTINOZOA.
Order Tabulata.
Genus Chætetes, Fischer.
Chætetes, sp. ind. Pl. II. figs. 33 & 33a.
Sp. char. Corallum forming an irregular, thin, incrusting expansion, composed of very short hexagonal or polygonal tubes; angles of the tubes, or calicles, bearing a small, rounded, and blunt mamelon or " monticule."
Obs. My friend Prof. H. A. Nicholson, who has devoted much time to the elucidation of the species of this genus, agrees with me in regarding this as probably a Chætetes, more especially as distinct "monticules" are visible. He thinks it (and I quite agree with him) an open question whether some of the incrusting species referred to this genus are not truly Polyzoa.
Loc. and Horizon. Shale with other marine fossils below the weir of Woodhall Barley-mill, Water of Leith, at Juniper Green, near Edinburgh, incrusting Orthoceratites. In the Wardie-Shale section of the Cement-stone group.
- ↑ Brit. Assoc. Report for 1855, pt. 2, p. 91.
