224 



NEW RED SANDSTONE. 



The Lower IMottled 



Sandstone is not always present where the 

 Bunter beds are exposed. At Leek, 

 the Potteries, Cheadle, Alton, Ash- 

 bourne and Derby the Pebble- 

 beds rest directly on the Palaeozoic 

 rocks ; but the sandstone appears 

 near Nottingham. The greater 

 part of Nottingham is built on a 

 ^ coarse white sandstone, containing 

 S .S scattered pebbles of quartzite, etc., 

 I ,f, belonging to the Pebble-bed di- 

 vision. The Castle stands on a 

 cliff of the same rock, in which 

 artificial caverns have been ex- 

 cavated. In this district the Lower 

 IMottled Sandstone passes up into 

 the Pebble-beds. 



At Morley, near Derby, as point- 

 ed out by Mr. E. Wilson, Keuper 

 Sandstone rests on the Pebble 

 Beds, furnishing evidence of local 

 unconformity between the Keuper 

 and Bunter.' (See Fig.34.) Here 

 the attenuation of the Pebble- 

 beds, the absence of the Upper 

 IMottled Sandstone, and the over- 

 lap of the Keuper Basement Beds 

 by the Waterstones, are signifi- 

 cant facts. 



In South Staffordshire the Lower 

 Mottled Sandstone is met with at 

 Stourbridge, but it is a very in- 

 constant division. At Smethwick 

 the Bunter conglomerates repose 

 on Permian Sandstone. 



The Upper Mottled Sandstone 

 ranges from near Harborne, by 

 Birmingham, to Sutton Coldfield. 

 The town of Birmingham is built 

 principally upon it, and it is ex- 

 posed west of Wolverhampton and 

 at Lichfield. The Pebble-beds 

 form the high ground of Barr 

 Beacon, Sutton Park, and Ald- 

 ridge, north of Birmingham. Prof. 

 Hull observes that in no part of 



1 G. Mag. 1880, p. 309. See also W. 

 T. Aveline, Geol. Nottingham (Geol. 

 Survey) ; and J. Shipman, Midland 

 Naturalist, i. 18, 30. 



