56 



BRIDGE, on their way to visit the Qtjabries at Steeeaway and 

 The Hatch, the Wrekin and Uriconium:. At Ironbridge a 

 short halt was made, to see the process of manufacture at the 

 encaustic tile works of Messrs. Maw, where this branch of 

 industry, now so largely employed for decorative purposes, is 

 carried to the highest degree of perfection. Taking the train 

 they proceeded to Lawley Bank Station, where they were joined 

 by the President, Secretary, and seven or eight Members of the 

 " Severn Yalley Field Club," in company with whom they 

 directed their course to the Steeraway Quarries, in the Carbon- 

 iferous Limestone. This formation is here seen thinning 

 rapidly out ; the entire series from the " Yellow " beds to the 

 Coal Measures being compressed into a thickness of some fifty 

 feet. The beds abound in huge Producti and Corals : of the 

 latter some splendid specimens were obtained. A toilsome 

 scramble up hill, and through brushwood brought the party to 

 the quarries at "The Hatch," where the Carboniferous Limestone 

 is exhibited in a still thinner section, with the Coal Measures 

 resting upon it. This was evidently the limit, in this direction, 

 of the old Carboniferous Limestone Sea : from hence, in a 

 north-easterly direction, it is wholly absent over a space of 

 some 70 square miles, and the Coal Measures rest either upon 

 " Old Eed " or " Silurian " beds. 



Prom " The Hatch " the course lay along the Erkal Ridge to 

 Lawrence's Quany, at the foot of the Wrekin, where trap 

 dykes are seen traversing " altered rock," " Caradoc " or 

 " Upper Llandovery." Considerable discussion took place, and 

 the different theories of infiltration and injection were urged 

 by their respective advocates ; but, looking to the fact that the 

 line of the dyke does not disturb the stratification which it 

 divides, the opinion that the intrusive rock was due to injection 

 along a line of fissure met with general acceptance. From this 

 point commenced the ascent of the Wrekin, up the steep, 

 almost precipitous, shoulder of which the party struggled reso- 

 lutely, to find, as a reward for their toil, that Mrs. MIaw, the 

 active and beneficent dispenser of so many good things, had 

 prepared a sumptuous luncheon for their refreshment; and 



