in the Neighbourhood of Birmingham, $'73 



miles ; but the varieties of granite, porphyry, and other rocks 

 of a primitive nature, in blocks of considerable magnitude, 

 and rounded by attrition, are referable to a more remote 

 source, as they will bear no relation to any range of rocks in 

 the immediate vicinity. It is not an unfrequent occurrence 

 in some of the beds of diluvial gravel, to find the bones of 

 large carnivorous quadrupeds and other animals, which have 

 in all probability been destroyed and buried at a period when 

 such deposits were formed ; but, in the gravel above alluded 

 to, none of these remains *, so far as 1 have been able to 

 ascertain, have yet been discovered, althouglx the excava- 

 tion in some places has been made nearly 100 ft. below the 

 surface. 



The subject of diluvial deposits has been so ably treated 

 upon by Professor Buckland (in his paper upon the quartz 

 rock of the Lickey Hill), by the Hon. Mr. Strangways, and 

 other gentlemen who have written in the Geological Trans- 

 actions^ as well as in the concise and admirable paper inserted 

 in your Magazine (Vol. JII. p. 75.), that little farther appears 

 necessary to be said, by others, than to offer such remarks as 

 may be essential upon the localities of these beds, and to iden- 

 tify the specimens such deposits contain. Most of the organic 

 remains which have come under my notice are embedded in 

 rounded fragments of rock, which appear to be detached por- 

 tions of those ancient strata that are so remarkably elevated 

 and exposed throughout the central and western parts of our 

 island. 



The vegetable remains, of which there are by far the 

 greatest abundance, have in all probability been accumulated 

 from the outcrops of the neighbouring coal formations, when 

 in a more elevated condition, as they agree in every respect 

 with those which are obtained from the mines ; but the speci- 

 mens of shells, corals, encrinites, &c., are referable to the 

 transition and mountain limestone, as well as to some of the 

 oolite beds and chalk formation. Some few of these speci- 

 mens I have carefully sketched, with a view to their being 

 more particularly identified, and the names of some of the 

 vegetables are taken from the work of Mr. Tyrell Artis. 



Fig, 69. A very perfect specimen of the fern species, from 

 a block of light-coloured ironstone, containing also many 

 flags and reeds. 



Fig. 70. A single leaf, in dark-coloured ironstone. 



* I am informed that the antlers of a very large species of deer, in an 

 excellent state of preservation, have lately been found in excavating the line 

 of continuation of this canal to Liverpool, near Blakemore Pool, the pro- 

 perty of Thos. H. Burne, Esq., of Loynton. 



B B 3 



