D. Jones. — Coal-measures of the Broion Clee mil. 349 



formerly worked to a considerable extent, and carried into Bewdley 

 Forest for the purpose of smelting. 



On a careful comparison of this section with that of the Cornbrook 

 District, it appears there is an unmistakable identity, and these coals 

 represent those of Cornbrook, ranging from the " Great Coal " to 

 the "Four Feet Coal," but there is this remarkable difference in 

 the rest of the deposits, that whereas the Bottom Coal of the Brown 

 Clee (which is equivalent to the Four Feet Coal of Cornbrook) 

 rests upon the Millstone Grit, we have at Cornbrook a thickness of 

 404 feet of Coal-measures below the Four Feet Coal, followed by 

 the " Gutter Coal," and other measures, making a total of 454 feet 

 between the Four Feet Coal and the Millstone Grit. The Millstone 

 Grit is between 200 and 300 feet thick at Cornbrook, whereas at 

 the Brown Clee it cannot exceed 50 feet at the most. The points 

 of nearest contact between Cornbrook and Brown Clee Hill are 

 about three miles and a half apart, and it is a most remarkable 

 thing that such a difference should exist with regard to the lower 

 deposits. 



I may remark that at Harcott there is another patch of coals 

 which correspond with those of Cornbrook and Brown Clee ; but in 

 that instance the coals rest immediately upon Old Eed Sandstone, 

 without any intervening Millstone Grit. How then does it happen 

 that at Harcott and Brown Clee we have little or no Coal-measures 

 underlying the equivalent of the Four Feet Coal, whereas we have 

 so great a thickness at Cornbrook ? It seems to me that subsequent 

 to the deposition of the Millstone Grit it was upheaved in the 

 locality of Brown Clee and Harcott ; it was then partially denuded 

 at the Brown Clee, but at Harcott entirely denuded. In the low 

 ground at Cornbrook, the " Gutter Coal" and Coal-measures under- 

 lying the Four Feet Coal were accumulated, and then the Four Feet 

 Coal was formed, this accumulation of Coal-measures raising the 

 level of the Four Feet Coal sufficiently high to allow it to range 

 over the elevated ground which we have referred to at Harcott and 

 Brown Clee. 



I can see no other interpretation of this phenomenon, unless it 

 could be shown that the Harcott and Brown Clee Coals are the 

 equivalents of the " Gutter Coal " of Cornbrook, but a careful com- 

 parison of the sections .shows distinctly that they are not; on the 

 contrary, they all answer to the series lying between the Great 

 Coal and the Four Feet Coal of Cornbrook. 



It is very interesting to trace the connexion of these patches, 

 because it tends to elucidate phenomena which present themselves 

 in the Coalbrookdale fields, where a vast washing away of coal 

 strata has taken place, and has produced what is locally known as 

 the Symon Fault. It has also washed off much of the deposits 

 south of a line drawn from Ketley to Lilleshall. 



To a person travelling through Shropshire, and passing over the 

 Coal-measures which may be seen distributed over several parts of 

 the county, it might seem an extremely rich and productive coal 

 district; but he would be grievously deceived if he placed the 



