214 Beehy Thompson — Trias in South Staffordshire. 



describe by way of an introduction to the more important remarks 

 which follow from the pen of Dr. A. Smith Woodward. 



A little over a mile to the south-east of Brewood, and a similar 

 distance south-westward of Four Ashes Station on the Wolver- 

 hampton to Stafford line of railway, is a small section in the 

 Keuper Sandstones and Marls. The opening is actually very near 

 to Somerford Hall, but at the present time it is known as Chillington 

 Brickyard. 



When I first visited this section it was a stone quarry only ; at 

 the present time (1901), after having been idle for twelve years, 

 it is being worked for brickmaking only. The possibility of this 

 double use will be evident on reference to the description below. 



Section at Chillington Bkickyaed (taken in 1887). 



ft. iu. 



Various layers of the beds 7 to 10 yielded large footprints of 

 Oheirotlierium. The casts of the impressions made are about -25 m. 

 and "15 m, in length and breadth respectively, and the toes raised as 

 much as 20 mm., indicating a comparatively large and heavy animal. 

 Certain other layers were completely covered with casts of im- 

 pressions of various kinds — worm tracks, worm castings, and small 

 three-toed footprints. Of the five-toed footprints particularly 

 referred to in Dr. Woodward's Notes, the examples I procured on 

 one occasion were the only ones I ever saw at this quarry, although 

 I have visited it four or five times. 



No pseudomorphs of salt were discovered, but small flattish 

 crystals of calcium sulphate occurred in some of the green stone 

 (the workmen said pieces like glass), and this, in conjunction with 

 numerous footprints, good ripple-marked and probably rain-pitted 

 slabs at various horizons, suggests deposition of the material in 

 a shallow lake with a fluctuating water-level. 



Naturally the stone splits most easily where the footprints occur, 

 the new sediment having been laid down upon a more or less 

 consolidated older one. 



It would appear that the Chillington section shows the junction 

 of the Waterstones division of the Upper Keuper with the Red 

 Marls of the same. There is no obvious unconformity, the con- 

 spicuous thin, green bands of both divisions being practically 

 parallel. 



At Great Chatwell, a few miles to the south-east of Newport 

 (Salop), I found a very much coarser sandstone yielding footprints. 



