For many years the various Coal-shales and other strata associated with the Coal-seams of Northumberland have been known to be rich in the remains of Plants, and the majority of the specimens which are illustrated in Lindley and Hutton's elaborate work on the Flora of the Coal-period were obtained from collieries in Northumberland and the adjoining county, Durham. It is only within the last few years that close attention has been directed to the investigation of the fauna of the Northumberland coal-fields. The first systematic investigator of the fauna of the Carboniferous period in this locality was Mr. Thomas Atthey, late of Cramlington, now of Gosforth; and within the last few years Messrs. Kirby, Sim, Taylor, and Craggs have each secured good collections of the Carboniferous fossils.