210 Proceedings of Philosophical Societies. [Mabch^ 



Article VIII. 



Proceedings of Philosophical Societies. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Dec. 3. — A paper was read by the Rev. Professor Buckland, of 

 Oxford, On the Quartz Rock of the Lickey Hill, near Broras- 

 grove, and Strata immediately surrounding it, with Considera- 

 tions on the Origin of Quartzose Pebbles of the Plains of 

 Warwickshire, and of the Valley of the Thames from Oxford 

 downwards to London. 



The group of the Lickey Hills is described in this paper as 

 occupying a small district between Bromsgrove and Birming- 

 ham in the middle of an extensive tract of young red sandstone. 



At the Lower Lickey this sandstone suddenly ceases, and a. 

 long hill composed of granulated quartz rock projects to a consi- 

 derable elevation above the plains of sandstone that flank it on 

 the east, forming a narrow camel-backed ridge of about two 

 miles in length, from north to south, and a quarter of a mile in 

 breadth. On each side of this ridge is a small deposit of shat- 

 tered strata, belonging to the coal forination, and near the 

 extreme points of its north base are two minute patches of tran- 

 sition limestone. At its south end there is also a small portion 

 of trap rock, and near its north-east base there occur traces of 

 cornstone and old red sandstone. These fragments, together 

 ■with the ridge of quartz rock, are encircled by an investiture of 

 horizontal strata of young red sandstone, the beds of all the 

 other formations being highly inclined. 



The upper Lickey Ridge, which overhangs all these fragments 

 of older formations on the west, contains a higher elevation than 

 any of them, and is composed of strata belonging to the young 

 red sandstone formation, containing subordinate beds of pebbles 

 derivative from the quartz rock. 



The ridge of quartz rock constitutes the most important 

 feature of this group, and is probably referable to a place among 

 the oldest members of the transition series, being exactly of the 

 same character with the quartz of the summit of the Stiper 

 stones, and the Wrekin and Caer Caradoc, in which two latter 

 places, it lies beneath greywacke slate, and is incumbent on 

 greenstone. 



The quartz at the Lickey is distinctly stratified, and is natu- 

 rally shivered or split into millions of small angular fragments ; 

 this circumstance is important, as showing the facility with 

 "which a rock so constituted, may have been broken down by the 

 force of water, and have contributed to form those enormous 

 beds of siliceous pebbles which occur in the lower strata of the 

 young red sandstone formation in the midland counties of Eng- 



