Q'liartzose Conglomerate at Caldon Low, Staff or dsJ tire. 77 



to this letter necessitates a detailed and accurate description of the 

 history and present condition of the exposure. This reply was 

 particularly ungracious, since one of us in December, 1918, 

 immediately after the reading of Mr. Jackson's first paper at Man- 

 chester on the subject, had communicated to him the fact that this 

 quartzose conglomerate had been known to local geologists for many 

 years, and had been shown to the members of the Geologists' 

 Association daring the excursion to North Staffordshire in 1890. 



To settle finally the position of the quarry whi6h we propose to 

 discuss, and which is the same quarry as that described by 

 Jackson and Alkins, its longitude is 1° 53' 10" W. and latitude 

 53° 2' 20" N., and the height is about 900 feet above O.D. 



Previous History. — In an address delivered in 1873, Wardle ' 

 mentions the existence of a sand and clay deposit at Caldon Low, 

 and this pit was first visited by two of us in 1889. It was then in 

 part a sand- and clay-pit of the type which is found in the Weaver 

 Hills, with pockets of sand and clay in the centre and masses of 

 conglomerate at the edge. It was very briefly mentioned in the 

 report ^ of the visit of the Geologists' Association in 1890, but no 

 one could be blamed for not recognizing the spot described. 

 However, this was remedied by J. A. Howe in his paper,^ " Notes 

 on the Pockets of Sand and Clay in the Limestone of Derbyshire 

 and Staffordshire." In 1905 the North Staffordshire Railway Co. 

 began to extend their quarries northwards, and, clearing away the 

 small pocket of sand and clay, laid bare a basin-shaped mass of 

 quartzose conglomerate in which they drove a small siding in an 

 eastward direction. This fact was noted in the report of the 

 Geological Section oi the North Staffordshire Field Club.^ 



Present Condition of Exjyosure. — At the present time the quartzose 

 material is being rapidly quarried away, and on both north and south 

 faces of the cutting the actual junction of the conglomerate with 

 the undisturbed and well-bedded limestones, which here form a 

 low anticlinal, the northern limb dipping north at an angle of 20°, 

 can be clearly seen. The contact Avhich forms the western boundary 

 of the conglomerate can be traced on both sides of the cutting from 

 the top of the quarry faces to the floor, the angle of inclination being 

 variable, but averaging about 50° to 60°. In the centre the bottom 

 of the deposit is not visible, as it passes under the floor of the cutting. 

 Near the junction the quartzose material shows vertical bedding 

 and is much more conglomeratic than towards the centre. 



At the eastern end of the cutting the contact with normal lime- 

 stone also rises quickly, but not to the top of the face, as a thin bed 

 of conglomerate about 1 foot thick, with a bed of crinoids above it 

 and normal limestone below, is seen to pass eastwards. On tracing 



^ North Staffordshire Field Club : Addresses, Papers, etc., 1875, p. 34. 



2 Proc. Geol. Assoc, vol. xi, 1890, p. 130. 



^ Trans. North Staffordshire Field Club, vol. xxxi, 1897, p. 143. 



^ Ibid., vol. xl, 1906, p. 85 ; vol. liii, 1919, p. 101. 



