Geological Society. 493 



3. Lickey Quartz rock, Caradoc sandstone, (Lower Silurian rocks.) 

 Dr. Buckland first called the attention of geologists to the Lickey 

 quartz rock* ; and, showing that it had been one of the principal ma- 

 gazines of the quartz pebbles in the new red sandstone and diluvium 

 of the southern counties, he further compared it with certain rocks in 

 situ in the neighbourhood of the Wrekin. The Rev. J. Yates has 

 also clearly described the lithological structure of this rock, and has 

 briefly touched upon some of its fossils f. Mr. Murchison undertakes to 

 prove the true geological position of these rocks. He shows that they 

 lie in the direct prolongation of the Silurian rocks of Dudley, and that, 

 being partially flanked and covered by thin patches of coal, they 

 emerge through a surrounding area of the lower new red sandstone 

 and calcareous red conglomerate (described in previous memoirs). 

 Unlike, however, the succession in the Dudley field, there are here 

 no traces of the Ludlow rock and Aymestrey limestone. Nor are 

 there masses of any size of the Wenlock limestone, but shreds only 

 of the shale or lower part of this formation with some of its well- 

 recognised fossils, (Colmers.) 



The lower Silurian rocks rise from beneath the Wenlock shale in 

 thin courses of bastard limestone, alternating with red and green 

 courses of sandstone and shale, the equivalents of those bands, which 

 at various places in Shropshire, and at Woolhope in Herefordshire, con- 

 stitute the top of the formation of Caradoc sandstones. Like these, they 

 are here underlaid by flaglike sandstones, sometimes rather more ar- 

 gillaceous and approaching to clay slate, the whole passing down into 

 siliceous sandstones, both thick and thin bedded. In the latter are 

 casts of several fossils of the Caradoc formation, such as Pentameri of 

 two species, and corals peculiar to it. These fossilliferous strata are 

 well exposed on the eastern side of the hills by recent cuttings, where 

 the new road from Bromsgrove to Birmingham traverses the ridge. 

 The ridge itself, however, consists essentially of quartz rock, which 

 the author shows is nothing more than altered Caradoc sandstone, 

 precisely analogous to that which he has on former occasions pointed 

 out on the flanks of Caer Caradoc, the Wrekin, Stiper stones, &c. In 

 those districts the passage from a fossiliferous sandstone to a pure 

 quartz rock has been accounted for by the latter being in absolute 

 contact with eruptive masses of igneous origin ; and here it is sug- 

 gested that the same cause may have operated, though the contact is 

 not visible, because the line of quartz rock is precisely upon the pro- 

 longation of the trappean axis of the Rowley Hills, whilst the southern 

 end of the parallel outburst of the Clent Hills, is but little distant. 

 Notwithstanding their highly altered condition, it is shown that all 

 the quartz rocks throughout this ridge of low hills are uniformly s<»a- 

 tified, the dip being either to the E.N.E. or W.S.W., i. e. at right 

 angles to the direction ; and the parallelopipedal fragments into which 

 the rock breaks are shown to be produced by fissures more or less at 

 right angles to the planes of stratification ; these fissures being so 



* Transactions Geol. Soc, 1st Series, vol. v. p. .'J07. 

 t Transactions Geol. Soc, 2nd Series, vol. ii. p. l."<7. — [Also Phil. M.^g., 

 First Scries, vol. Ixv. p. 297] 



