524 Geological Society. 



where the railway intersects a ridge of lias. On the north side the 

 marl is there cut oiF by a fault, but on the south, at Dunhamstead, 

 the following juncture section is exposed : — 



(«.) Lias clay with contorted beds of lias limestone. 



(6.) White micaceous sandstone, with numerous speci- 



mens of a smooth oval bivalve 2 Feet. 



(c. ) Lias clay 6 



(d.) Grey marl 35 



(e.) Red marl 



Dip of the beds 5° north-north-east. 



In the hill south of Dunhamstead, the grey marl (rf) abuts against 

 the red marl (e) in consequence of a fault. For the next five miles 

 the railway traverses a valley of red marl, between the escarpment 

 of the lias and a ridge of Keuper sandstone. On the south-east of 

 Sjjetchley the strike of that sandstone is altered by a fault from 

 south by east to south-west, and a projecting angle has been pro- 

 duced which is intersected by the railway. This stratum is a feeble 

 representative of the Keuper sandstone of Burg Hill, &c.*, con- 

 sisting chiefly of greenish marl with thin laminae of white sand- 

 stone, about twenty feet thick, with red marl above and below. 

 At Norton the railway ascends the lias escarpment, and cuts through 

 a section exactly analogous to the one given above. A mile 

 further south the lias clay contains many calcareous concretions 

 abounding with fossils, including Plagiostoma giganteum, Modiola 

 minima, and a coral. At Abbot's Wood the fissile sandstone at the 

 base of the lias is again exposed, having been brought up by a fault. 

 At Defi^ord and Eckington the Has clay encloses numerous speci- 

 mens of PacAyorfo?* Xesto-f (Stuchbury), or Unio Listeri oi Sowerby, 

 and Ammonites Turneri. At Bredon a higher portion of the lias 

 series was reached, and a different suite of fossils found, the most 

 marked being Pleurotomaria Anglica, Hippopodium ponderosum, Gry- 

 pliaa incurvu. Nautilus striatus, and several species of Ammonites. 

 Between Cheltenham and Gloucester the lias has yielded great 

 abundance of organic remains, a considerable number of which are 

 considered to be new, and with the exception of Hippopodium pondo-o- 

 sum, Gryphaaincurva, and one or two others, they are distinct from 

 the fossils of Bredon Hill ; and at Hewlitt's, east of Cheltenham, the 

 lias near the base of the marlstone presents another series of distinct 

 fossils. The lower lias, therefore, Mr. Strickland observes, afl^ords 

 evidences of at least four well-marked successions of molluscous 

 faunae, in a vertical height of 400 or 500 feet, and unaccompanied 

 by any change in the mineral character of the deposits. 



Superficial detritus. — The author then proceeds to describe the 

 deposits of superficial detritus, and he states, that they entirely con- 

 firm the views which he had previously entertained, respecting the 

 distinction between the ancient terrestrial alluvia in Avhich bones of 



Hewell Grange, nearly north, by Cofton Hacket to Northfield, and thence 

 north-east to the south suburbs of Birmingham. 



* Proceedings, vol. ii. p. 503 ; [or L. and E. Phil. Mag., vol. xi. p. 318. 

 —Edit.] Geol. Trans., 2nd Series, vol. v. p. 332. 



