452 T. C. Cantrill — Sjnrorbis-Limestones. 



From an examination of the map I had always failed to see how the 

 Arley Wood limestone, in the absence of serious faulting, could reappear 

 at Whitacre Hall (three-quarters of a mile north-east of Nether 

 Whitacre), and had come to the conclusion that what Mr. Howell had 

 seen was in reality a limestone in the ' Permian ', and not the Arley 

 Wood band at all. This surmise I was able to confirm by an 

 examination of the ground near Whitacre Hall in August, 1902. 



At about 250 yards south of the Hall, in the south-eastern corner of 

 a pasture-field adjacent to the public road, there are several old marl- 

 pits, 8 or 10 feet deep, partly filled with water and bordered by dwarf 

 oaks and thorns. In these pits, which were evidentlj^ excavated in 

 crimson marls, were several pieces of dark-grey bituminous limestone, 

 ranging in length up to 10 inches, and 5 or 6 inches thick. After 

 producing nearly a barrowful of road-stone I succeeded in obtaining 

 two specimens of Spirorhis pusillus. Whether the pits were dug for 

 the purpose of extracting the limestone or for the sake of the red marl, 

 there is little doubt that the limestone crops there. I saw no traces 

 of the old kilns seen by Mr. Howell. To the north-east small pieces 

 of limestone are to be seen on the surface of the farm-road leading 

 eastward up the hill from the Hall; a large mass was noticed in the 

 bottom of a grass-grown excavation close to this road and 600 yards 

 east of the Hall ; others, still farther east, were found in old pits near 

 a barn by the side of the Hurley road. All these occurrences taken 

 together suggest an outcrop running north-eastward toward Bull Barn, 

 and although it would be impossible to lay down any definite line for it 

 without further field-work, I have not the slightest doubt that we have 

 here a band of Spirorlis-\im.e^toTie which at a very moderate estimate 

 of dip must be quite 150 to 200 feet above the base of the ' Permian'. 

 There is no question, in my judgment, that the outcrop occurs, not 

 in the ordinary grey and yellow Coal-measures exposed by denudation, 

 but in the typical ' Permian ' beds which are to be seen in quarries 

 and other sections in the immediate vicinity. 



Maxstohe. — Five miles south of Whitacre Hall another outcrop of 

 limestone emerges among the ' Permian ' marls immediately east 

 of the boundary fault at a point three-quarters of a mile south of 

 Maxstoke. A reference to the Geological Survey map (62 S.E.) 

 shows the western margin of the ' Permian ' to be a westerly down- 

 throw which, ranging southward through Nether Whitacre, Maxstoke, 

 and Meriden, throws down the Keuper Marl (f ") on the west against 

 the ' Permian ' on the east, while a narrow strip of Lower Keuper 

 Sandstone (f^) emerges from beneath the Marl at Maxstoke and 

 persists southward. Three-quarters of a mile south of Maxstoke 

 a brook, rising at a strong spring at the foot of the wooded escarpment 

 of Quarry Wood and Daniel's Wood (see Fig. 2), flows under the 

 Maxstoke-Meriden Poad, and passes a few yards north of the 

 Hermitage Farm, on its way to join the Blythe. In the road, a few 

 yards south of the brook, a shallow cutting shows about 4 feet of sand- 

 stone, chiefly soft and fine-grained, though some of the rock is calcareous 

 and hard and contains small red and yellow fragments of marl. The 

 bedding appears to be horizontal. Proceeding eastward, up-stream, sandy 

 soil, blocks of sandstone, and one or two outcrops bring us nearly as far 



