54 On the Strata of "England. . 



regular crystallization : so that, in my estimation, the fourth 

 Derbyshire limestone is not that which is generally found 

 restins; upon slate; but more probably the yellow lime: this 

 being the concomitant stratum to the great red, is fre- 

 quently subjected to those mighty derangements peculiar to 

 this immense mass. In proof of this I refer your readers 

 to an examination of the country in this neighbourhood, 

 from Flanly Abbey, where the yellow lime just emerges 

 from under the great red, not as a regular endins, or basset, 

 but in consequence of a powerful lift or swell in the mea- 

 sures along Blassden and May Hills, passing behind Ne- 

 vvcnt to the west, sometimes wheeling, sometimes advan- 

 cing, forming gentle helmet- topped hills covered with brush- 

 wood, till acquiring a more uniform and contiguous ridge, 

 it makes directly to Ledbury, and subsequently the angle of 

 its rise becoming tnuch elevated it overlays the western side 

 of the Malvern hills to a considerable height. 



This limestone, as it is seen in the neighbourhood of Led- 

 bury and Malvern hills, has been accurately described by 

 Mr. Horner in the Geological Transactions. That part of 

 the limestone series which hedenon)inates argillaceous slate, 

 I conceive to be an inferior sort of limestone, as there are 

 few of the beds but what yield nodules of limestone. In 

 Kirkby in Derbyshire it wears exactly the same appearance 

 when exposed to the weather. In some districts it is called 

 mudstone, and is soluble in water, so as to make sinking 

 through it difficult. As a proof that the limestone now 

 described is the same with the yellow or magnesian, which 

 forms the coping stratum of the Derbyshire and Yorkshire 

 coal fields, I have to state the fact of the Derbyshire thick 

 first coal having been worked many years ago, from under 

 the crop of the yellow lime, near the town of Newent in 

 Gloucestershire. Appearances had been so favourable in 

 the crop as to induce the proprietors about ten or twelve 

 years ago to sink a shaft, between 80 and 90 yards deep, and 

 put up a powerful engine. This pit was sunk in the lower 

 beds or mudslont of the yellow lime. The coal was found 

 six feet thick, but of an inferior quality ; the roof also, from 

 the numerous joints in the mudstone, was so heavy as to 

 break timber two feet in diameter. Before abandoning the 

 work, those concerned had, by cutting a drift across the 

 rising plane of the measures, ascertained the existence of 

 the lower coals, which, upon comparing with the Derby- 

 shire section, I found exclctly to correspond with the small 

 coals found under the Greasly Sheanich and Alfreton coals. 

 This curious circumstance was further corroborated to me 



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