CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 131 



of curiosity. The numerous plates with which the work is illus- 

 trated are from the burin of Mr. RadclyfFe, and are most elaborately 

 and beautifully engraved. 



Our allotted space will not permit of many extracts from the 

 work of Mr. Smith. We must, therefore, content ourselves with 

 an abstracted description of the subjoined plate, illustrative of the 

 Geology and IMining of the South Staffordshire Coal-field, with 

 the use of which we are favoured by the publishers. 



After describing the boundary of the Coal-field, which is well 

 displayed in an accompanying map, by means of shades and lines of 

 varying intensities, the author proceeds — (part i., p. 23 ei seq.J : — 



" Of the coal strata, the principal one is nearly thirty feet thick, and takes 

 the descriptive appellation of " ten -yard coal." * * The general inclina- 

 tion, or dipj of the entire strata is from north to south ; but there are various 

 irregularities observable in this course. Of these, the most remarkable are 

 those in which the whole recumbent mass has been forcibly raised ; bringing 

 to view a thick bed of lime-stone, which, in all probability, is the primitive 

 substratum throughout the district. Its angle of inclination varies from 45 

 to 80*' ; and as it has been raised from its original location, 300 yards below 

 the surface, the strata are found to incline each way ; tending to a junction 

 at the summit, and sloping on each side like the roof of a house — (fig. 1, b.) 



« The great elevation of the hme-stone here alluded to, and which occurs at 

 the Wren's Nest Hill, near Dudley, is more definitely exhibited in fig. 2, in 

 which c c and d d represent the position and inclination of the elevated stra- 

 ta g h the line or face of the country — and aba. subterranean canal, 2,000 



yards in length, cut, with immense labour, at a great depth, connecting itself 

 with the other canals in the neighbourhood, and thus affording the facility of 

 transit for the heavy mineral, through which it is driven. Fig. 4 represents 

 the curious appearances exposed in a deepened cutting of the road at the 

 Hayes, between Hales Owen and Stourbridge, and which laid open a long 

 series of coal and rocky beds, dipping to the east, and extending to the solid 

 lime-stone, at a. Fig. 7. is a sketch of a fragment of the Dudley lime-stone, 

 full of fossil remains, as Trilobites, Corals, Sponges, Pectins, and other bi- 

 valved testacea; with detached vertebrae of Encrinites." 



" That the stupendous events which caused these elevations and depres- 

 sions took place after the numerous upper beds were deposited, is rendered 

 evident by the regularity of their relative collocation, even where faults or 

 fractures occur. A remarkable disruption of this kind runs through the 

 Bradley mines, and proceeds in a southerly direction to a great length. On 

 the western side of this fracture, with scarcely any intervening space, the 

 main coal and all its attendant beds lie from 80 to 100 yards nearer the sur- 

 face, than on the eastern side." — (fig. 1, b). 



The other strata of useful minerals are then described, viz., " the 

 iron-ore, of the kind denominated clay ironstone ; technically, a 

 carbonated hydrate of iron mixed with clay," and " the fire-clay, 

 Cleucargillumjj so called from its power of sustaining very intense 

 heat without fusing. This substance is extremely serviceable in the 

 manufactures, being used for crucibles of all kinds ; and for the 

 bricks with which furnaces are lined." 



The last substance particularly described is that which is denomi- 

 nated Trap or Basalt, and which, from the situation of its principal 

 quarries, is commonly called " Rowley Rag." It is presumed, from 



