on the Upper Formations of the New Bed System. 319 



At Shrawley Common, near Warwick, the surface of some of the 

 beds is impressed with foot-marks of an animal, probably a crocodile 

 or saurian, having feet with four claws. 



The marls beneath the sandstone are of great thickness, and 

 have been sunk through at Stoke Prior, near Droitwich, to a depth of 

 near 600 feet. Besides gypsum they contain masses of rock salt, 

 and are the sources of brine springs. In piercing these marls no 

 bed of sandstone has ever been met with, and no fossils have been 

 observed. This great marly formation, comprising the fossil- 

 iferous sandstone, is compared with the Keuper of Alsace and Sua- 

 bia and proved to be its equivalent. The discovery of ichtbyo- 

 dorulites of a genus so abundant in the lower lias, but of an un- 

 described species, is considered by the authors to be a good zoolo- 

 gical confirmation of the age of the sandstone, as indicating an 

 approach to the types which characterize the lower lias. 



New Red Sandstone, (Bunter Sandstein, Gres bigarre). — The up- 

 per beds of this arenaceous formation, rising from beneath the marls, 

 are usually light coloured j the tints of the sandstone varying 

 from dingy yellow, to white and grey, greenish grey and red. 

 These light-coloured sandstones are occasionally covered by thin 

 courses of red sandstone, which graduate into the overlying marl $ but 

 they invariably pass down (sometimes by alternations) into the great 

 red sandstone of the central counties, and are thus inseparable from 

 that formation. This order is clearly seen at Ombersley, Hadley, 

 Elmley Lovett, and Bromsgrove, in Worcestershire. This sand- 

 stone is lithologically distinguishable from the overlying Keuper 

 sandstone in being softer, much thicker bedded, and more mica- 

 ceous, though like that rock, some of the upper strata are wedge- 

 shaped and inosculate with marl. This lower rock is the same as 

 that described by Mr. Murchison, at Hawkstone and Grinshill in 

 Shropshire, in which localities it is one of the best building stones 

 in the kingdom. 



In its range from Ombersley, by Hadley to Elmley Lovett, 

 and again near Bromsgrove, the sandstone contains many plants, 

 usually in a state approaching to charcoal, the jet black colour 

 forming a striking contrast to the light-coloured matrix. 



Among these plants, the greater part of which are too imperfect 

 to be identified, Professor Lindley has, however, recognized the 

 strobilus of a species of Echinostachys ; (E. oblongus) figured by 

 M. Ad. Brongniart as peculiar to the gres bigarre ; a portion of a 

 flabelliform palm leaf; parts of dicotyledonous stems with their 

 bark ; a broad leaf of some monocotyledon, and a species, probably 

 of Convallirites, (Brongn). 



As these fossils bear no affinity to the well-known plants of the 

 Keuper, but have on the contrary a strong resemblance to the 

 Flora of the H Gres bigarre, " offering in one instance a specific 

 identification with a vegetable peculiar to that formation, the au- 

 thors have no doubt that this light-coloured sandstone of Worces- 

 tershire forms part of the same deposit. 



By sections extending from Warwick to the north-west, the sand- 

 stone of Guy's Cliff and Leamington is shown to be of the same 



