NOTES ON THE ONNY RIVER SECTION. 



By J. W. SALTER, Esq., F.G.S., &o. 



The gorge of the river Onny is classic ground. It is one of the best 

 sections in Siluria, and it has, besides, a little difficulty in it which misled the 

 earlier observers, and which may yet furnish work for the Naturalists' Field 

 Clubs. 



Indeed, though much has been done in it, there is yet enovigh left to do. 

 The western end, where the river cuts through the faulted Cambrian ground, 

 will furnish many a day's work for the man who cares less for fossils than for 

 geological structure. The various sub-divisions of the Caradoc — which it was the 

 good fortune of Mr. AveUne and myself to disentangle — should each be care- 

 fully marked out on the parish maps, and then transferred to the small ord- 

 nance scale : — 



1. The Hoar Edge grits of Corston, &c., with the Horderley limestone. 



2. Soutlley and Long Lane sandstones. 



3. Cheney LongviUe flags (Chatwall, Broome, &c.). 



4. Calcareous beds of Batch gutter, Ticklerton, Plash, &c. 



5. Trinuckus shales of the Onny section. 



All deserve separate mapping, and will repay the toil. 



And if the observer will be only careful to spot them down on the map 

 where he sees them, without attempting to join up the broken lines, he will 

 do more for the geology of Shropshire than has yet been done, for a simple 

 reason worth recording. The whole ground is highly, nay, intensely, faulted. 

 These faults are not marked on any map ; and in attempting to carry on un- 

 broken lines of strata from end to end of the Caradoc valley, the arrangement 

 of these faults is so utterly obscured that nothing but a fresh survey will make 

 them intelligible. This survey should be the work of the Caradoc, Severn 

 Valley, and Ludlow Clubs. 



As a contribution to this good work, I have taken advantage of the hos- 

 pitality of my friend the Rev. J. de la Touche, to re-examine the cliff section of 

 the Trinudeus shales, with the overlying May Hill group, which is so clearly 

 displayed at Cheney Longville footbridge. 



