536 itEroRT— 1884. 



sandstone, but the investigations of Mr. F. T. Houghton, Professor Lap- 

 worth, and others, have shown that, while there is a quartz-grit of Llan- 

 dovery age, the quartzite proper is an older rock. 1 Professor Lapworth 

 has also discovered that at the south-western end of the range there are 

 felspathic ashy beds, and a felstone, with a general resemblance to that 

 abounding in the Wrekin area. 



(6.) The UartsMll Ridge. — Extending for about two and a half miles 

 in a north-westerly direction from the town of Nuneaton, is a ridge of 

 quartzite forming the eastern flank of the Carboniferous district of War- 

 wickshire, and bounded in that direction by a fault, on the other side 

 of which are the Keuper beds. This quartzite has been mapped and 

 described by the Geological Survey as altered Millstone Grit. Professor 

 Lapworth, however, has recently discovered that it is overlain by a, series 

 of Upper Cambrian beds, containing characteristic fossils, which are suc- 

 ceeded by the Coal-measures of the district, and is underlain by felspathic 

 mudstones and ashes, among which occurs intrusively a quartz-felsite. 2 

 Certain diorites intrusive in both quartzite and the Upper Cambrian beds 

 have been described by Mr. S. Allport. 3 



(7.) The Gharnioood Forest Region. — This interesting district lies to 

 the north-west of the town of Leicester, and consists of a group of hills 

 cropping out from beneath Triassic beds, which have occupied its ancient 

 valleys, and possibly once buried many of its summits. It is, in short, a 

 pre-Triassic highland region which has been again laid bare by denuda- 

 tion. The area occupied by the older rocks measures, roughly, nearly nine 

 miles from NW. to SE., and rather more than four from SW. to NE., but 

 it is somewhat interrupted by overlying Trias. At the north-west end, in 

 close proximity to the older rocks, a patch of dolomitized Carboniferous 

 limestone is exposed, and along the north-west flank is the Leicestershire 

 Coalfield. The district has been investigated by the Rev. E. Hill and 

 myself, 4 and the following is a brief resume of our conclusions. Omitting 

 for the present sundry masses of igneous rock, generally rather coarsely 

 crystalline, the Charnwood Forest series forms probably the more 

 southern portion of an elongated anticlinal dome. The axis of this 

 points from rather N. of NW. to S. of SE. The mass is severed by an 

 anticlinal fault, and, as I think, by a lai'ger parallel one to the west. The 

 beds on the opposite side of these are rather dissimilar, but we think 

 that sundry horizons may be identified with tolerable certainty, and the 

 following general succession established. The lowest group, exposed 

 only at the northern extremity of the Forest, consists of slates and gritty 

 beds. The latter have been called quartzites, but they arc not at all normal 

 representatives of this group, and they appear for the most part to be 

 fine volcanic detritus of an acid character. To this succeeds a great series 

 of grits,' slates, volcanic ash, and agglomerates, some of the last-named 

 being very coarse and containing at certain horizons rounded masses 

 of a rhyolitic rock, at others large fragments of a greenish slaty rock. 

 Then comes, on the western side, at High Sharpley, a schistose porphy- 

 ritic rock, overlain apparently by a less schistose variety called the 

 Peldar Tor rock, over which come more agglomerates. Yet higher, 



1 Proa. Birmingham Phil. Soc, vol. iii. p. 206. 



- For information on these two regions, and for the opportunity of examining 

 some of the more important sections, I am indebted to Professor Lapworth. 

 8 Q. J. G. 8., vol. xxxv. p. G37. 

 * Q. J. G. S., vol. xxxiii. p. 754 ; xxxiv. p. 199 ; xxxvi. p. 337. 





