Hl.UMAN -Y.-TKM 





/'< iititiid -i- nit oblongiw, I', uiulutii*, Mrii-klmiiliu /</i.v, 



spherica, Strophomena pecten, Encrinurm punctatus. The 



shales consist in tin- Wenlock district of purple, red, and green shales 



with few fossils, and are distinguishable )>y their colours from the 



overly iiii,' Wen lock shales. 



Salopian Series. Tin- succession ul 1 limestones and shales 

 which form this series at Woolhope and Malvern is shown in 

 Figs. 51 and 52. The Woolhope limestone is from 50 to 260 

 feet thick, the Wenlock from 250 to 400, and the Aymestry about 

 260 feet, while the intervening shales vary from 500 to 900 in 

 different places, and the average total thickness of the series is 

 over 2000 feet 



Tin' Woolhope limestone is also present near Presteign in 

 Radnor, but thins out northward and is only represented in 

 Shropshire by a band of calcareous and fossiliferous shale. The 

 whole series forms a broad band from the southern border of this 

 county to the river Severn at Coalbrookdale, the Wenlock and 

 Aymestry limestones forming well-marked escarpment ridges, rising 

 above the outcrops of the shale as the beds are here dipping 

 steadily to the east (see map, Fig. 21). The succession found near 

 \Venlock was well described by Mr. W. Maw in 1881, 3 from whose 

 paper Fig. 53 lias been copied. 



The Buildwas Beds, which here represent the Woolhope lime- 

 stone, are exposed in a small cliff opposite Buildwas Abbey, 

 ami are shales which yield an immense number of small brachio- 

 poda, Orthis biloba, 0. elegantula, 0. Lewisi, 0. hybrida, i^''""" 

 segment tan, Xxclcospira pisum, and Atrypa (? Retzia) Barrandi. Mr. 

 Maw considered these beds to represent the Woolhope limestone of 

 more southern localities. The Tickwood Beds are shales with layers 

 of nodular limestone, the shales predominating in the lower part and 

 the limestones in the higher part below the massive limestone of 

 Wenlock edge, so that it is not easy to say where the <>ne ends and 

 the other begins. Fossils are abundant in these beds. 



The Wenlock limestone is well exp' sed at Benthall Edge and 

 in quarries near Wenlock ; it is a grey earthy limestone, generally 

 lyinj,' in thin beds \\ith shaly partings, and is highly los.-iliferoup. 

 Some of the beds appear to be largely made up of corals which 

 weather out finely in the spoil-heaps, while others contain quant it ii-> 

 of Brachiopoda and Mollusca. 



The Lower Ludlow shales consist of soft grey sandy shales, often 

 showing a tendency to spheroidal structure, and their total thick- 

 ness is about 900 feet in the Wenlock and Ludlow district. In 

 the Wenlock area they do not contain graptolites, but have yielded 

 many other fossils, of which the following are some of the 



