Charles Ketley —The " Red Rocks " near Birmingham. 197 



yai'ds, if not earlier, the sinkers entered the Coal-measures. A 

 second seam of Coal six inches thick was met with at 230 yards, 

 and a third seam of the same thickness at the depth of 244 yards. 

 From this third Coal to the thick Coal the depth was 174 yards. 



As to the 110 yards overlying the first observed fossils, it seems 

 that, if any Permian beds form a part of that thickness, they are 

 wanting in those characters by which we have been accustomed to 

 distinguish the Lower Permian rocks from the Coal-measures. 



Sandwell Pit, being one mile east of Bullock's Farm Pits, and 

 all the beds rising to the west, it follows that the red beds of Bul- 

 lock's Farm and the other West Bromwich sinkings, rise from beneath 

 the Upper Coal-measures of Sandwell. So that there is not, as 

 there was supposed to be, a great thickness of Permian beds deposited 

 upon denuded Coal-measures, or occupying the place of Coal-measures 

 entirely swept away, or resting upon older rocks. On the contrary, 

 we have Coal-measures throughout the greater part of the sinkings. 



Thus, with respect to the red rocks of West Bromwich, the Sand- 

 well sinking teaches that the position in the geological scale of, at 

 least, the greater part of them had been misunderstood for want of 

 better evidence, and that they are not Permian, but Coal-measures. 



It must be evident there is more in this fact than a mere change 

 in classification, and that it is of great interest and importance as 

 bearing upon the question regarding the depth of the Carboniferous 

 rocks, "not only near West Bromwich, but," perhaps, " generally in 

 South Staffordshire and the adjoining counties." 



The opinion of Professor Jukes as to the thickness of the Permians 

 and of the Coal-measures, quoted above, was based principally upon 

 the evidence afforded by Bullock's Farm and the other West Brom- 

 wich sinkings. In his chapter on the Permian rocks of the South 

 Staffordshire Coal-field, he says : — " There are two parts of the dis- 

 trict, from the examination of which it is possible to arrive at a 

 tolerably complete notion of the structure and sequence of the Per- 

 mian rocks, namely, the country about the Lickey and the Clent 

 Hills, and the neighbourhood of West Bromwich." (South Stafford- 

 shire Coal-field, page 9.) In estimating the depth at which profit- 

 able Coal-measures' might lie, the thickness of red rocks, which was 

 known approximately, was added to an almost equal thickness for 

 Upper Coal-measures supposed to underlie the red rocks ; but now that 

 the red rocks themselves prove to be Upper Coal-measures, we see 

 that the thickness of the Upper Coal-measures has been reckoned 

 twice over. Had Jukes possessed such evidence as Sandwell now 

 gives, not only would he have seen the probability of Coal under- 

 lying extensive untried tracts, but his estimate of the depth at which 

 the Coal might be won would have been reduced by leaving out a 

 great part of the 1500 feet reckoned for the thickness of the Permian. 



The Sandwell section exhibits a greater thickness of Coal-measures 

 over the thick Coal than had been opened up previously. Its highest 

 beds appear to be new. The thi'ee little Coals were not before 

 known as a series, but it is probable the 9-inch Coal met with in 

 Bullock's Farm Shaft at 70 yards from the surface is one of the same 



