318 Geological Society : — Messrs. Murchison and Strickland 



A paper was then communicated, ° On the upper formations of the 

 New Red System in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and Warwick- 

 shire, showing that the Red(Saliferous) marls with an included band 

 of sandstone, represent the Keuper or Marnes irisees, and that the 

 underlying sandstone of Ombersley, Bromsgrove and Warwick, is 

 part of the ' Bunter Sandstein,' or ' Gres bigarre' of foreign geo- 

 logists;'' by Roderick Impey Murchison, F.R.S., V.P.G.S., and 

 Hugh E. Strickland, Esq., F.G.S. 



In previous communications* Mr. Murchison has shown, that the 

 system of New Red Sandstone in the central counties of England 

 is divisible into four formations. 1. Marls xuith salt and gypsum, and 

 one included band of sandstone, (Foreign Equiv. Keuper or marnes 

 irisees.) 2. Quartzose Sandstones, (Bunter Sandstein, or Gres bi- 

 garre.) 3. Calcareous Conglomerate, representing the magnesian 

 limestone or dolomitic conglomerate, (Zechstein, &c.) 4. Lower 

 Nexa Red Sandstone, (Rothe todte liegende.) 



The object of the present communication is to mark, with precision, 

 the distinctive characters of the two upper formations of this system, 

 and to point out how the one can be separated from the other over 

 a wide area, by stratigraphical, lithological, and zoological distinc- 

 tions. 



The rocks are described in descending order. 



Red and Green Marls and Sandstone, (Keuper.) — This for- 

 mation includes all the variegated marls which lie between the 

 lowest beds of Lias, and the uppermost strata of the underlying 

 formation of sandstone. 



The highest of these marls graduate into the lias, are occasion- 

 ally gypseous, and at a depth of about 200 feet beneath the lias, 

 are underlaid by a peculiar sandstone, which appears to have escaped 

 the notice of former observers. 



Tracing this rock from the borders of Gloucestershire, through 

 Worcestershire into Warwickshire, the authors show, by various 

 sections at Burg Hill, Ripple, Wallsfarm, Inkberrow, Hervington, 

 and Shrawley Common, that this band, which never exceeds forty 

 feet in thickness, invariably occupies the same stratigraphical 

 position. It is a thin-bedded, hardish, quartzose sandstone, usually 

 of whitish colour, but sometimes tinted light green and red ; the 

 grains of sand being frequently cemented by decomposed felspar, 

 and the beds separated by thin way-boards of greenish marl. The 

 courses of stone are of very irregular extension, thinning out amid 

 the marls. The lower strata are sometimes, (as at Inkberrow,) suf- 

 ficiently thick-bedded to be used as building stones, but the flag-like 

 character prevails (tombstones, &c). 



This thin-bedded sandstone is characterized throughout its course, 

 by a small bivalve shell, somewhat resembling a Cyrena in form, 

 but the genus has not been determined. Ichthyodorulites occur 

 and seem to belong to the genus Hybodus (Agassiz) : also teeth of 

 fishes have been observedf. 



* Proceedings, vol. i, p. 471 ; vol. ii, p. 115. 



t It is proposed to call the Ichthyodorulite Ht/bodus Keuperi. 



