Geological Society. 523 



the north-west joints. He acknowledges his obligation to Mr. 

 Peniston, the resident engineer, for a correct section of the cutting. 



A memoir descriptive of a " Series of Coloured Sections of the 

 Cuttings on the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway," by Hugh 

 Edwin Strickland, Esq.. F.G.S. 



The author commences by expressing his regret at the irre- 

 coverable loss, which science has experienced, in full advantage not 

 having been taken of the valuable geological information, which has 

 been exposed by the railway cuttings in different parts of England 

 during the last ten years ; and he suggests the propriety of each 

 line of railway being systematically sui-veyedby a competent ob- 

 server, while the cuttings are in progress. 



Anxious to contribute towards so desirable an end, Mr. Strickland 

 gladly yielded to a request made to him by Captain Moorsom, the 

 chief engineer of the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway, to un- 

 dertake a geological survey of the line ; and he expresses his obliga- 

 tions to that gentleman and to Captain J. Vetch for the valuable as- 

 sistance they afforded him. The line was originally surveyed by 

 Mr. Burr, when only the trial shafts had been sunk, and before the 

 cuttings were commenced ; but Mr. Strickland bears testimony to 

 the accm-acy of the account which Mr. Burr laid before this So- 

 ciety.— (Geol. Proceedings, vol. ii. p. 593 ; or L. & E. Phil. Mag. 

 vol. xii. p. 573.) 



The direction of the railway ranges nearly parallel to the strike 

 of the strata, and therefore intersects only the new red sandstone 

 and red marl, the lias, and superficial detritus. 



New red sandstone and red marl. — The lowest rock exposed be- 

 longs to the new red or bunter sandstone, resting on the anticlinal 

 axis of the Lickey, ten miles south-south-west of Birmingham, and 

 one mile south of the termination of the altered rock, or Lickey 

 Quartz*. The sandstone is there thick-bedded, soft, and red, and 

 dips on the western flank about 5° west-south-west, and on the 

 eastern 5° east-south-east. In Grovely Hill, on the north-east of 

 the Lickey, it passes occasionally into a hard quartzose conglome- 

 rate with a calcareous paste \ ; and at Finstal, on the south-west of 

 the Lickey ridge, the upper portion of the sandstone is light-coloured, 

 and contains obscure vegetable impressions, being a prolongation of 

 the stratum, with similar impressions, at Breakback Hill, on the 

 west of Bromsgrove X • 



On each side of the Lickey, the sandstone is conformably overlaid 

 by red marl, which extends on the north-east to Birmingham^, and on 

 the south-west to Stoke Prior and the neighbourhood of Hadnor, 



• See Mr. Murchison's Silurian System, p. 492. 



t Similar conglomerates occur in Worcestershire, Staffordshire, and 

 Warwickshire.— Silur. Syst., p. 42. Geol. Trans., 2nd Series, vol. v. p. 347. 



* Geol. Trans., 2nd Series, vol. v. p. 341 ; Proceedings, vol. ii. p. 564 ; 

 [or L. and E. Phil. Mag., vol. xi. \>. 319.— EniT.] 



§ Tlie red marl extends from Birmingham along the London railway as 

 far as Berkswcll, forming the basin, in which occurs the lias outlier of 

 Knowle south-west of Berkswell. The true boundary of the sandstone and 

 marl in this district has been only recently ascertained ; it ranges from 



