Dr. C. A. Matley — Bunter Pebble-heds in Midlands. 215 



have not yet done) that the buried Palaeozoic rocks of the South-East 

 and East of England contain the right rock-tj'pes and the right fossils 

 I would not give those buried areas special consideration.' If the 

 objection be made that the geographical conditions of Bunter time 

 were such that a rock barrier prevented tlie flow of these materials 

 from the south-west into the Midlands, as indicated in Mr. Jukes- 

 Browne's map (op. cit., fig. 34), then the evidence for the complete 

 baiTier ought to be carefully collected and the impossibility of a 

 connexion be clearly proved. I suggest that one of the tributary 

 streams that carried the Bunter gravels may have followed the line of 

 the present Bristol Channel, a course which would provide a likely 

 source of the Carboniferous Limestone (often silicified), Chert, 

 Llandovery Sandstones," etc., as well as of the schorl-rocks, which 

 occur in the Midland Bunter. 



There must have been some local contributions to the Midland 

 Triassic pebbles ; and local quartzites like those of the Lickey and 

 Hartshill and some of the rock-fragments in the Permian breccia 

 probably played some part, though a minor part, in contributing to 

 the mass of these materials.^ 



In spite of much excellent work that has already been done, much 

 remains to be accomplished. For instance, among the rarer pebbles 

 to be met with in the Bunter Conglomerate are various examples of 

 hard rocks, apparently of great antiquity, which it has not been my 

 experience to meet in situ in the field or to see in museum collections 

 of British rocks. A careful collection of these rarer and special types, 

 a record of the distribution of each type, and a correlation with 

 similar rocks exposed at the present day would probably lead up 

 to valuable results. In seeking for correlations the rocks of Brittany 

 should not be overlooked. 



I regret to have had to present this paper while so much of my 

 collected material remains unstudied, but the circumstances are 

 exceptional, and, as already stated, I wish to stimulate further 

 research into this important and interesting subject. 



I have had to write the above without access to books of reference, 

 maps, or specimens, so that apart from some notes I have had to rely 

 on memory for many statements. 



^ It is true that Spirifer rerneuili was found in the Tottenham Court Koad 

 boring, but it is a widely distributed Devonian fossil, and it occurred there in 

 a matrix altogether different from the Bunter pebble type. 



" I have not seen the specimens, but I would be inclined to eliminate from 

 the published lists of fossils found in Drift pebbles and ascribed to the Bunter 

 those that indicate a Llandovery age. For instance, Strichlandinia lirata in 

 W. J. Harrison's list is found in the Eubery Sandstone of the Lickey Hills. 

 This sandstone is made up of the waste of the Lickey Quartzite, on which it 

 rests unconformably, and it sometimes simulates in texture and appearance the 

 older rock. Specimens from this source may have come direct into the Drift 

 without ever having become Bunter pebbles, and in either case they are of 

 local origin. 



^ The less-rounded quartzite pebbles of the Lower Keuper basement-beds of 

 the Midlands suggest a derivation from local quartzites. The materials of these 

 beds, as Mr. Harrison remarked in 1882, deserve careful and detailed study. 



