Mineral Pyoductions of ShrGpshire. 30!) 



fluence on it than on the white stone, tlie iron absorbii)"- so 

 much air as to lose its tenacious quality. 



Further south, sandstone prevails; and. Dr. Townson 

 found at Orton Bank a stratum ot the Eath and Portland 

 3ti)ne between strata of common limestone. 



In the west district is a siliceous grit, hard to work, but 

 very good to build with; but the general stone is argilla- 

 ceous. That nearest the surface is but in part indurated, 

 and becomes friable, under a slight pressure, when exposed 

 to the vicissitudes of weather. Very good stone slates, for 

 covering roofs, are met witli in the parish of Bettus, on the 

 south-west confines of thecountv. And there is very ffood 

 flag-stone in Corndon Hill, west of Bishop's Cast'e. In 

 Swinny Mountain, near Oswestrv, is a superior white sand- 

 stone, which works very well. Bowden quarry, in the 

 hundred of JNIunslow, contains also very good white sand- 

 stone; and at Soudley, in the parish of Eaton, and Iran- 

 chises of Wenlock, is a very good stone-flag for floors. 

 This brings us near some hills which have not hitherto been 

 much mentioned, viz. the Lawley, and Caerdoc, or Caer 

 Caradoc. 



South of the Lawley is a ridge of useful coarse grit, or 

 sandstone, of a yellowish white. But the Lawley is in part 

 formed ot a kind of granite, probably what mineralogists 

 call secondary granite ; but a greater part of the hill is com- 

 posed of what forms the basis of wliat has been lately called 

 loadstone, which, though wanting no explanation to a 

 mineralogist, it may be well to give some popular idea to, 

 by saying, it is entirely distinct from sandstone, limestone, 

 or slate, and approaches the nearest, in outward appearance, 

 to a basaltic rock, though probably very ditVereut in reality. 

 The stone of the Caerdoc is chert and granulated quartz ; 

 and in some places the toadstone appears, which having, in 

 part, lost its glands, becomes cellular, and which may have 

 given rise to the opinion of its being lava. The Pousert 

 Hill partakes of the nature of the Caerdoc and Lawley. 

 I am indebted to a conversation with Dr. Towuson tor 

 whatever is scientific in tlie account of these two hills ; and 

 a more minute account of them, and of other hills in this 

 county, will be ibund in liis volume of Tracts, before quoted. 

 Mr. William Reynolds informs me, that a part of the 

 Caerdoc, towards the north-west end, contains the pista- 

 chio green actinolite of Dr. Townson, imbedded in what 

 he calls a gray whack, and \\ hich actinolite, on examina- 

 tion, has been found to contain so nuich iron as to become 

 strongly magnetic on exposure to heat, and the containing 

 U 3 bed 



