€22 REPORT— 1886. 



the remarkable Oambriau and pre-Cambriau rocks of the Wrekin ; Bii-mingham 

 geologists themselves have quite recently made several startling discoveries of large 

 areas of Cambrian rocks in much closer proximity to the town ; and the interest 

 thus aroused in local geology seems likely to continue. 



The most interesting geological strata in the Birmingham district are the sup- 

 posed Archaean rocks of the Malverns, Charnwood, and the Wrekin, the Cambrian 

 strata of Nuneaton and the Lickey, the highly fossiliferous Silurian of Dudley, the 

 rich coal- and iron-bearing rocks of the South Staffordshire coalfield, the enigma- 

 tical Permian breccias of the Clent Hills, and the remarkable 'Pebble Beds' of the 

 local Trias. To the north-west of Birmingham the area around Wolverhampton is 

 crowded with innumerable boulders brought down from the Lake District and the 

 south of Scotland. To the south-west of the town, erratics equally abundant are 

 met with, which have travelled from the high ground of the Arenig in North. 

 Wales ; while relics of the mammoth and other prehistoric animals have been ob- 

 tained from the area east of the town in the excavations of Shustoke. 



2. On the Discovery of Bochs of Cambrian Age at Dostliill in Warwichsliire} 

 By "W. Jerome Harkisox, F.G.S. 



Tlie little eminence of Dosthill forms part of the western boundary of the 

 Warwickshire Coalfield. It lies close to the Midland Railway (Birmingham and 

 Burton branch), between the stations of Kingsbury and VVilnecote ; it is two miles 

 south of Tamworth, and twelve miles north-east of Birmingham. On the Geological 

 Survey Map Dosthill is coloured as a mass of greenstone intrusive in the Coal- 

 measures, and bounded on its western side only by a line of fault. 



On May 29, 1882, the author visited the district for the first time. He found 

 the fault on the west side of the hill very sharply defined, the Keuper Red Marls 

 forming a level plain through which the Tame meanders, and from which the camel- 

 backed ridge of Dosthill rises precipitously. The lowest rock seen near this west 

 fault is a hard grit. Above this we find Cambrian grey shales traversed by innu- 

 merable worm-borings and invaded by igneous rocks. The latter are of two kinds — 

 a tough dioritic rock, and narrow dykes of a grey, much decomposed rock. One 

 section at the south end of the ridge shows a dyke rising through grey Cambrian 

 shales and spreading out above them. The eastern boundary of Dosthill is also a 

 line of fault by which the Coal-measures have been thrown on end and shattered 

 But there is no evidence that the coal-seams have been ' burnt,' as alleged in the 

 Survey Memoir (' Geol. Warwickshire Coalfield,' p. 49). The whole succession of 

 the strata is very similar to that at Nuneaton and Hartshill, on the eastern side of 

 the coalfield, eight miles to the south-east. 



3. TJie Ganibrian Rocks of the Midlands. 

 By Professor C. Lapworth, LL.D., F.G.S. 



Upper Cambrian rocks occur in several localities within the limits of the 

 Birmingham district — at the Malverns, the Lower Lickey Hills, Nmieaton, the 

 neighbourhood of the Wrekin and Shineton, at Caer Caradoc, and Cardington. 

 The core of the Lickey HiUs, near Birmingham, is formed of quartzite, formerly 

 believed to be of Llandovery age. This has been shown by the author and Mr. 

 F. Houghton to be actually of pre-Silurian age, rising unconformably from below 

 the basement beds of the local Silurian, and apparently underlain by volcanic 

 rocks of vmknown geological age. The supposed Lower Carboniferous rocks of 

 Nuneaton and Atherston have also been demonstrated by the author and Mr. 

 Harrison to be of Upper Cambrian age, containing the characteristic Agnostidae 

 and Olenidse. Detailed descriptions, illustrated by maps, and sections and cha- 

 racteristic fossils, were given of the Cambrian areas of the Lickey and Nuneaton, 

 together with a detailed account of their underlying and intrusive volcanic 



' Printed in full in Midland Naturalist, Dec. 1886. 



