ON PALEOZOIC ROCKS. 275 



Palaeozoic Rocks. — Report of Committee (Prof. W. W. Watts, 

 Choir man; Prof. W. G. Fearnsides, Secretary; Mr. W. S. Bisat, 

 Prof. W. S. Boulton, Mr. E. S. Cobbold, Mr. E. E. L. Dixon, Dr. 

 Gertrude Elles, Prof. E. J. Garwood, Prof. H. L. Hawkins, 

 Prof. V. C. Illing, Prof. 0. T. Jones, Prof. J. E. Marr, Dr. T. F. 

 Sibly, Dr. W. K. Spencer, Dr. A. E. Trueman) appointed to excavate 

 Critical Sections in the Palceozoic Rocks of England and Wales. 



During the year 1926-7, the work of this Committee has been carried forward in three 

 districts — Leintwardine, Herefordshire ; Ravenstonedale, Westmorland ; and the 

 Church Stretton area, Shropshire. 



At Leintwardine during the winter, Prof. Hawkins cleared and excavated, inch 

 by inch, a column of strata three feet square and twelve feet deep at the classic 

 ' Starfish Bed Quarry ' on Church Hill. The first results of this work have been 

 presented in a paper by Prof. Hawkins, to be published by the Geological Society of 

 London. The owner of the property (Mr. C. Boughton Knight) has taken great 

 interest in the research, and there are no charges to be defrayed by the Committee. 

 Prof. Hawkins hopes to proceed further at a later date. 



At Ravenstonedale, Prof. Garwood and other members of the Committee attempted, 

 at Whitsuntide, 1927, to open up the section below the conglomerate exposed in 

 Pinskey Gill. A trench was cut in the right bank of the stream west of the road 

 bridge, and excavated until it became water-logged some three feet below water- 

 level. Red and variegated shales of Carboniferous type were discovered in or under 

 the conglomerate, but the mam result was the proving of the conglomerate exposure 

 as a buried cbff on the western side of a drift filled ravine which does not exactly 

 coincide with the existing stream-course of Pinskey Gill. It is now clear that the 

 exact stratigraphical relationships of the red conglomerate with its rhyolite and other 

 igneous rock pebbles, to the Spirifer-bea,rmg dolomites and shales and the Silurian 

 slates below, cannot, at Pinskey Gill, be proved except by boring. The expenses 

 incurred in making the excavation have been mainly defrayed by members attending 

 Prof. Garwood's Whitsuntide excursion. 



Mr. E. S. Cobbold writes as follows on his excavations among the Cambrian and 

 associated strata in the Cwms Hollow, east of Caradoc, Church Stretton, his seventh 

 report on his series of excavations : — 



Seventh Report on Excavations among the Cambrian Rocks of Comley, Shropshire. 



By E. S. Cobbold, F.G.S. 



On p. 118 of the Report of the Committee to the Manchester Meeting (1915) a 

 short note is given of a few small trial holes in ' the Lower Ridge of the Cwms.' At 

 the reading of a paper by the present writer on the stratigraphy of the Coudey 

 Cambrian, it seemed desirable that the junction of the Cambrian quartzite with the 

 pre-Cambrian should bo exposed if the permission of the present owner of the land, 

 Mr. W. Jarrett, of the Cwms Farm, could be obtained. This he gave very willingly, 

 and the writer wishes to acknowledge with cordial thanks his indebtedness to 

 Mr, Jarrett. 



Excavation No. 56. The Lower Ridge in the Cwms. 



It will be seen by the section (page 276) that a trench, some 63 feet in length and 

 6 feet in maximum depth, was made transverse to the strike of the quartzite. It 

 exposed 14 feet of incoherent red sandstone (Torridonian), 25 feet of beds assigned 

 to the Wrekin quartzite and 24 feet of the base of the Lower Coniley sandstones. 



The strike of the Lower Cambrian beds is 20° west of north, that of the Torridonian, 

 wliich had to be obtained in a subsidiary excavation, was found to be 20° north of 

 east, and the two formations are separated by a 6-inch layer or vein of yellowish clay 

 that appears to mark a fault hading at a steep angle northwards. 



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