34 MR. E. W. BINNEY ON THE ORIGIN OF IRONSTONES. 



The locality where I have chiefly examined the red stone* 

 as it is provincially termed, is at Booth's Wood, a little to the 

 north of the village of J^stones. The mine belongs to Mr. 

 Bishop, the gentleman previously mentioned, and is very 

 conveniently situated just above the canal. A level being 

 driven into the hill side, the stone is brought out of the mine 

 and loaded into the boats beneath by a shoot. The red stone 

 here is from 18 to 20 inches in thickness, and the bed dips to 

 the south-east at an angle of 4°. It is not uniform in quality, 

 the richest portion being about 10 inches in the middle, and 

 the top and bottom being of an inferior description. It is 

 divided by regular joints, which render it easy of working, in 

 bays of 8 or 10 yards in length. The price of the stone, put 

 on board boats in the canal, I was informed was 12s. 6d. 

 per ton. The floor of the stone is a poor kind of ironstone, 

 containing some lime ; and the roof is a brown coloured shale 

 with a shell in it resembling the Unio acutus. In the stone 

 itself I did not detect either iron pyrites or the remains of 

 fossil shells or fishes ; so it must be considered very free from 

 sulphurets and phosphates, so detrimental to the manufacture 

 of good iron. 



The following section, in the descending order, will shew 

 the nature of the strata both above and below the ironstone : 



yd. ft. in. 

 Black shale, containing marine shells, consisting of 



Avicula papyracea, goniatites, and posidonia 14 



Cog/ (sulphury) 2 



Brown fire clay 1 1 



Fine grained light sandstone (Woodhead Hill Rock).,. 8 



Shale 10 



Black shale 14 



Smallcoal 8 



Shale 5 



Ironstone 16 



Floor 2 



Rough rock 30 



* This term red stone must not be confounded with the valuable blackband 

 of the upper part of the Pottery coal field, there also called red stone. 



