630 KEPOET— 1886. 



variety of fossils with the rich, varied, and peculiar Continental series, is still 

 sufficiently marked and important in this county and elsewhere to make it a 

 distinctive and independent formation. 



10. On a Deep Boring for Water in the New Bed Marls (Keuper Marls) 

 near Birmingham.^ By W. Jerome Harrison, F.G.S. 



In the district round Birmingham the Keuper sandstone is divided from the 

 Keuper marls hy a line of fault running from north-east to south-west (Erdington 

 to Rubery) — roughly along the line of the river Rea. 



West of this fault the Keuper sandstone and Bunter pehble-heds occupy the 

 surface, and yield an enormous and unfailing supply of pure water, the Birmingham 

 Coi-poration alone pumping about eight million gallons daily from three deep wells 

 in this formation. East of the line of fault the Keuper red marls form an un- 

 dulating band from five to twelve miles in width, the towns and villages on 

 which depend wholly on surface waters, or shallow wells in surface gravels, for 

 their water-supply. As the Keuper sandstone imdoubtedly underlies the Keuper 

 marls throughout the whole or the greater part of this tract of East Warwick- 

 shire, it is not surprising that attempts have recently been made to reach its 

 locked-up waters by means of deep borings. Some seven or eight years ago the 

 Birmingham Corporation bored in Smallheath Park (the southern suburb of 

 Birmingham) to a depth of 440 feet, entirely in Keuper marls. The object of this 

 paper is to describe a boring made during the present year at King's Heath, three 

 miles south, of Birmingham, at the brewery of Messrs. Bates, in search of water. 

 The following rocks have been passed through : — 



Feet 



Sands and gravels 36 



Boulder clay 20 



Red marl 158 



Red marl and gypsum 131 



Marls and shales, with gypsum 309 



Marls and shales 3^ 



Hard sandy marls and shales 9|- 



Total depth = 667 feet 



At present the boring is temporarily delayed, owing to the breaking of a tool 

 at the bottom of the bore-hole. 



From comparisons with the Keuper marls of Staffordshire, &c., the thickness of 

 the Keuper marls at King's Heath can hardly be more than 700 feet. It is to be 

 hoped that the Keuper sandstone will be reached almost immediately, and that 

 its water-bearing properties will be such as to satisfy the requirements of the 

 district. 



11. Notes on a Smoothed and Striated Boulder (^exhibited) from a Pre- 

 tertiary Deposit in the Punjab Salt Bange. By W. T. Bi.anford, 

 LL.V., F.B.S., Sec.G.S. 



The block of stone in question, like another exhibited by Mr. A. B. Wynne, 

 was obtained by Dr. Warth, at Chel Hill, in the Punjab Salt Range. This speci- 

 men was sent by Dr. Warth to Mr. H. B. Medlicott, Director of the Geological 

 Survey of India, who forwarded it to the present writer, in the hope of learning 

 the views of those who have most experience of similarly marked boulders, and of 

 ascertaining whether the peculiar characters of the present specimen are due to 

 any particular form of ice action or to any other agency. 



The stone consists of a purplish-brown porphyry, apparently an altered felsite- 

 porphyry. This rock is known to occur in Rajputana, near Jodhpui-, between 300 



" Printed in full in Geol, Mag. Dec. 3, vol. ill. p. 453, 1886. 



