476 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION ©. 
Pendock, and LEldersfield in South-West Worcestershire, and were probably 
once continuous with the sandstones of Inkberrow and Callow Hill, near 
Redditch. 
Of the constituents, the thin-bedded sandstones are fine-grained, ripple- 
marked, and characterised by the presence of much calcareous matter and abun- 
dant rhombs of dolomite. The thicker-bedded sandstones consist mainly of 
grains of quartz, with felspar and the usual assemblage of heavy minerals in 
well-rounded grains; of these garnet is the most conspicuous. Close to the base 
of the group there is frequently a conglomeratic bed (‘bone-bed’), composed of 
fragments of green marl, plants, bones, and teeth. Shales and steinmergel may 
occur with the sandstones. 
We are able to describe for the first time from the English Trias examples of 
the foliage and scales of the female cone of a Volézia, closely resembling 
V. heterophylla, of the Bunter of the Vosges, and to record new occurrences of 
Voltzia, Schizoneura, Carpolithus, and, possibly, Yuccites. 
The plants are associated With indeterminable teeth and bones of Labyrintho- 
donts, and with fish remains, which are abundant in the ‘bone-bed’ and very 
rare at higher horizons. 
Fish-teeth, hitherto described as Acrodus? keuperinus, are widely distributed, 
and prove, on microscopic examination of their internal structure, to be referable 
to Polyacrodus (Jaekel). Dorsal-fin spines and cephalic spines associated with 
these teeth probably belong to the same genus. 
Phebodus brodiei has been found frequently at Knowle. It, Semionotus, 
and Ceratodus have all been described before from these beds. 
Cestraciont remains allied to Polyacrodus keuperinus are especially abundant 
in ‘bone-beds’ at the base of the Lettenkohle in Germany, and its presence 
may be regarded as evidence of estuarine conditions. Ceratodus, on the other 
hand, occurs frequently in the Rhetic, a deposit usually accepted as marine, 
but its only living ally inhabits some rivers in Queensland. 
We have found Vhracia? brodiei at Shelfield. This lamellibranch was 
described by Mr. R. B. Newton as a truly marine form, but it is only repre- 
sented by rather obscure casts. 
Estheria minuta, a form that is probably never truly marine, is practically 
ubiquitous, and occurs in both shales and sandstones. 
The fauna and flora is thus seen to be a restricted one, though many 
specimens have been found, and their testimony on the origin and age of the 
deposit is inconclusive. 
If we may judge from the lithology, the conditions which governed the 
formation of the ‘ skerry-belts’ of Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire—namely, 
the arrival of floods of fresh water—probably acted more persistently in the area 
under consideration, as a result of its greater proximity to land. For not only 
are the beds very similar to the ‘ Skerries,’ but in the ‘bone-bed’ or marl con- 
glomerate we have positive evidence of littoral conditions. 
Thus we are not dealing with a pre-Rhetic incursion of the sea, but with a> 
littoral facies of the Keuper Marls, formed where the water was at times 
sufficiently fresh to support a small fish-fauna and in sufficient motion to move 
coarse sediments. 
9. Nodules from the Basal Ordovician Conglomerate at Bryn Glas, 
Ffestiniog. By Professor W. G. FEARNSIDES. 
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12. 
The following Papers and Reports were read :— 
1. The Development of the Midland Coalfields. 
By Frep. G. Mracuem, M.E., F.G.S. 
Great advances have been made in mining since the first meeting of this 
Association in Birmingham in the year 1839. Women were then employed in 
the mines, also children under ten years of age, and all worked twelve hours 
Ss 
