100 SILURIAN. 



Cephalopods include Orthoccras anntdatum, Phragmoceras veiitri- 

 cosum, and many other species. 



Some Annelides are also met with ; these are Cornulites serpu- 

 larius, Teniaciilites ornatus, etc. Dr. G. J. Hinde has discovered 

 many specimens of Annelide jaws in the Wenlock and Ludlow Beds, 

 which had hitherto escaped observation, no doubt, as he remarks, 

 from the fact that the largest specimen did not exceed one-fifth of 

 an inch in length.^ 



Among the localities for fossils are Wenlock Edge, Benthall 

 Edge, and Gliddon Hill. In the Woolhope district fossils may be 

 obtained at Checkley Common south of Stoke Edith, at Warslaw 

 and Dormington. At Whitfield near Tortworth, in Gloucestershire, 

 and in the May Hill and Usk districts fossils are plentiful. Some 

 of the finest corals originally described by Lonsdale in the 

 ' Silurian System,' were collected by the Rev. T. T. Lewis, in the 

 gorge of the river Lugg, above Aymestry. 



The Dudley Quarries have been spoken of as the most famous in 

 the world for Silurian fossils ; and the collections made by the late 

 J ohn Gray of Dudley, and by Capt. T. W. Fletcher of Lawnswood, are 

 "deservedly well known. Large slabs of limestone from the Wren's 

 Nest, Dudley, containing specimens beautifully weathered out, of 

 Annelides, Corals, Polyzoa, Brachiopoda, Encrinites, Cystideans, 

 and Trilobites, are generally to be seen in Museums. 



The Wenlock Limestone is considered to have been a deep-sea 

 formation, and to have been very tranquilly deposited.^ Dr. S. P. 

 Woodward has remarked that " In our Silurian Coral-reef of the 

 Wenlock Edge and Dudley there may be masses of branching coral 

 a yard across, and convex Stroinatopom {Hydrocoral lines) of nearly 

 equal size. But the coral-beds are separated by clay partings, and 

 never attain a great thickness."^ 



Murchison mentions that formerly there were lead-mines in the Wenlock Lime- 

 stone at Much Wenlock. 



The limestone is largely quarried for smelting purposes and for lime-burning at 

 Hurst Hill, near Sedgley, at Lincoln Hill and Iron Bridge, at May Hill, along 

 Blaisdon Edge, and other localities previously mentioned. The 'hailstones' of 

 Wenlock have been quarried out as the best flux for the smelting of iron. 



An analysis of the Wenlock Limestone at the Wren's Nest, Dudley, showed the 

 following composition :* — 



Carbonate of lime 74 '64 



,, magnesia 2'5i 



,, protoxide of iron i'63 



Alumina "75 



Phosphoric acid "35 



Insoluble matter 20'03 



(Loss in analysis) "og 



1 Q. J. xxxvi. 368. 



'^ See ]. W. Salter, in Jukes' South Staffordshire Coal-field, edit. 2, p. 116. 



^ G. Mag. 1864, p. 42. * Proc. Dudley Geol. Soc. iii. 114. 



