3 1 4 Geological Socielj/. 



now standing, each of which is formed of a single piece of stone, are 

 not strictly perpendicular, but all slope towards the south-west, that 

 is, towards the sea, and from the temple where the statue of Jupiter 

 is supposed to have stood. It is well known the columns of ancient 

 Greek temples, the Parthenon for instance, have an inclination in- 

 wards. The slope of the columns in that of Serapis is not great, 

 but very decided, and was established by measurement and by ob- 

 servations on the angle formed by the reflection of the columns in 

 the water, which covers the pavement of the temple at high tides. 

 The floor of the temple is also slightly inclined, for Capt. Hall ob- 

 served, that on the recession of the tide, the northern side was left 

 dry, when the water was still some inches deep on the southern 

 side. 



January 21. — A paper was first read " On an outlying basin of 

 Lias on the borders of Salop and Cheshire, with a short account of 

 the lower Lias between Gloucester and Worcester," by Roderick 

 Impey Murchison, Esq., V.P.G.S. 



Having heard from Mr. Dod of Cleverly that frequent trials for 

 coal had been made in a part of North Salop situated between the 

 Hawkstone Hills and the towns of Whitchurch and Market Dray- 

 ton, the author visited that district during the autumn of last year. 

 He found that the strata, supposed to be coal shale, belong to the 

 lias, and that they range over a considerable area resting upon red 

 marl and new red sandstone. With the assistance of the Rev. T. 

 Egerton, F.G.S., he has ascertained that this lias occupies an ellip- 

 tical basin, the length of which from S. W. to N. E. is 10 miles, and 

 the breadth about 4 to 6, the surrounding strata dipping inwards at 

 slight angles. The western boundary only is indeterminable, being 

 concealed by gravel and turf bog. The formation is divisible into 

 marlstone and lower lias. The first is clearly exposed in the hill of 

 Prees,and contains the fossils which characterize it in Gloucestershire 

 and Worcestershire, viz., Avicula incEquivalvis, Gryphcsa gigantea, 

 and Pecten cequivalvis, with an Ammonite, in great abundance, re- 

 sembling A. geometricus of Phillips. 



The lower lias crops out at various points along the exterior of the 

 ellipse, particularly between Moreton Mill and Burley Dam ; near 

 the last of which places it is, in parts, bituminous and slaty, like the 

 Kimmeridge coal. Near Cloverly and Adderley the lias shale 

 has been penetrated by shafts in search of coal to the depth of 300 

 feet, and numerous fossils have been extracted, among which 

 are, Ammonites Bucklandi, A.Conybeari, A.planicosta, A. planorbis, 



A, communis?, A. -, published in Zeiten's Wirtemberg fossils, 



and four species of undescribed Ammonites ; Astarteelegans, Belem- 

 nites subclavatus (Voltz, found in the lias of Boll), Cidaris, Gryphcea 

 incurva, G. MacCullochii, Modiola minima; Pecten and Pullastra 

 (two unpublished species, both occurring at Brora); Plagiostoma 

 pectinoideSj first published from Brora ; P. giganteum, Pentacrinites 

 scalaris, Goldfuss; Rostellaria? Spirifer, Tellina, Unio, Turritella, 

 and unpublished Serpulae ? 



Among these fossils some are universally characteristic of the 

 formation, others were first observed in the lias of the distant di- 



