North Staffordshire Naturalists' Field-club. 173 



like those of BMzodus ; but the backward curvature and feeble plica- 

 tion, at the base lent probability to the conjecture that they belonged 

 to a Labyrinthodont, additional specimens of which might perhaps be 

 found in the collections of members of the Society, 



Mr. J. Wallace Young read a paper, entitled " Notes on the Bal- 

 lagan Series of Rocks." This was a supplement to his previous 

 paper (see Geol. Mag. March, p. 132). He described the lithological 

 character of the beds ; and after quoting several analyses of the lime- 

 stones and shales, the author went on to say that we could not 

 explain the formation of these dolomites upon the supposition that 

 they were originally limestone, and subsequently changed. From 

 their somewhat nodular structure and impure character, it rather 

 appeared as if they had proceeded from the segregation of a dolomitic 

 mud, so to speak. At all events, it is quite evident that the con- 

 version, if such was required, must have taken place at, and not 

 subsequent to, their deposition.. — J. A. 



NoKTH Staffordshire Natuealists' Field-olub. — Stoke Athe- 

 naeum, 11th of December, 1866, R. Grarner, Esq., F.L.S., in the chair. 

 Mr. W. Molyneux, F.G-.S., of Burton, read a paper "On the Gravel 

 Beds of Trentham Park." 



The gravel beds of Trentham Park belong to the division of the 

 New Eed Sandstone formation, known as Bunter conglomerates, or 

 pebble beds, which in this particular locality attain a thickness of 

 about 300 feet. The entire division includes three distinct groups of 

 strata, consisting, firstly, of red and variegated sandstones and marls ; 

 secondly, of the pebble-beds or conglomerates in question ; and 

 thirdly, of soft red mottled sandstones, with marly interstratifi- 

 cations. Upon these latter rests the Lower White Sandstone of the 

 Keuper series. 



The beds exposed in the section opened up on the west flank of 

 the Trentham Park hill are about eighty feet in thickness, and main- 

 tain a uniform inclination due west, at an angle of four inches in 

 twelve. The upper portion consists of gravel, which is followed by 

 irregular beds of red and white sandstone, with intersections of 

 gravel more or less coarse, and reposing upon a thick mass of 

 yellow-white sandstone dotted with pebbles. On the east flank of 

 the hUl these pebble beds are shown to pass downwards into soft red 

 variegated sandstones, which here, as at Normacott, overlie marls 

 and sandstones of the Permian age. The total thickness of the con- 

 glomerates at this point is about 150 feet. The pebbles of which 

 they are composed consist of a most astonishing variety of quartzites 

 passing in colour from pure white down to black. With these are 

 intermixed fragments of rocks derived from the Silurian, Mountain 

 Limestone, Yoredale, and Millstone-grit formations, but in no instance 

 have any of later age been detected. 



The fossils of these beds are of a remarkably interesting class, and 

 as stated, belong almost exclusively to the fauna characteristic of the 

 Silurian and Lower Carboniferous Rocks. The former fossils are 

 nearly all of the May Hill Sandstone group, which form the base of 



