4 MEMOIR OF THE 



if any good sections of it should occur, it may be expected to 

 reward the geologist amply for the trouble of an examination.* 



The next stratum in the descending order is the Marlestone. 

 This formation consists of a series of beds of sandstone, marl, and 

 sand, in various degrees of induration. It may be traced along the 

 side of the Broadway Range, at about half the height up j and 

 skirts Bredon Hill in the same manner, where it forms the summit 

 of five or six flat-topped projections, half the height of the main 

 range, and jutting out from it on the N. and E. sides. In Dum- 

 bleton Hill, which is of inferior height, it occupies the summit, 

 proving, by the regularity of its occurrence in these hills, that the 

 intervening vallies have been denuded, and that Dumbleton and 

 Bredon Hills are correctly termed outliers. 



The Marlestone rarely possesses sufficient solidity of texture to 

 qualify it for a building-stone, but in lieu of better materials it is 

 quarried in many places to repair the roads. The Marlestone 

 of our district seems unquestionably to be the equivalent of the bed 

 of the same name on the Yorkshire coast, which separates the 

 Upper and Lower Lias Shales. In both localities it contains an 

 abundance of fossils, including several species which are common 

 both to Worcestershire and Yorkshire. In this neighbourhood the 

 most numerous and remarkable fossils are, Belemnites, Gryphaea 

 Gigantea, and Pecten ^Equivalvis. The following is a list of the 

 fossils hitherto noticed in it, and probably many more might be 

 added on a closer examination of the several quarries where it 

 is exposed. 



Ammonita 5 species ; Nautilus 1 j Belemnita 1 ; Terebra 1 ; 

 Turbo 1 ; Trochus 1 ; Mya 1 j Lutraria 1 ; Unio ? 3 ; Corbula ? 1 j 

 Tellina? I ; Astarte 1 j Cardium 1 ; Modiola 1 3 Pinna 1; Avicu- 

 la 1 J Plagiostoma 4 ; Pecten 9 ; Ostrea 1 5 Gryphaea 1 3 Tere- 

 bratula 8. Twenty-one genera ; 45 species. 



We now arrive at a formation more important both in thickness 

 and superficial extent than any hitherto described — the Lower Lias 

 Shale, commonly knctwn by the simple name of Lias. This 

 stratum occupies nearly the whole of the Vale of Evesham, and 

 extends from 200 to 300 feet up the sides of Bredon and Broadway 

 Hills. Its total thickness is probably upwards of 500 feet. At 

 Bretforton it has been sunk into more than 300 feet, in quest 

 of coal, without being perforated. This excavation was com- 

 menced three years ago by a sanguine speculator, in spite of the 

 warning advice of geologists, and after a great sum expended, is at 

 last given up as hopeless. All scientific geologists know that true 

 coal is only to be found beneath the New Red Sandstone, and that 

 to seek for it in the Lias which is above that formation can only 

 end in disappointment. And such is the enormous thickness of the 

 New Red Sandstone, (as shewn by Mrs. Brown's excavation, 

 which will be noticed hereafter,) that it is scarcely less chimerical 

 to seek for it there, except, indeed, in the very lowest beds of that 

 formation. If by diffusing a knowledge of the general principles of 



* An account of this stratum and its organic remains, will be found in Mr. Mur- 

 chison's excellent little work on the Geology of Cheltjenhara, just published. 



