116 



cester, and Gloucester*" By Roderick Impey Murchison, Esq., 

 V.P.G.S. 



Viewing the new red sandstone which occurs in parts of Salop, 

 Stafford, and Worcester, in the extended sense first applied to it 

 by Mr. Conybeare*, as including all the deposits between the lias 

 and the coal-measures, the author endeavours to divide the group 

 into distinct subforraations; an attempt which had not been made, 

 the whole having been hitherto laid down upon maps as one for- 

 mation. Following, as far as the structure of the country would 

 allow, the divisions established by Professor Sedgwick for the N. E. 

 of England, it is shown that the series is divisible into the under- 

 mentioned subforraations : 



^ Foreign Equivalents. 



1. Red and green marls Keuper. 



2. Sandstone and conglomerates. .J5M?2^er san(/5fe«z, Gres bigarre. 



3. Calcareous conglomerates. . . . Zechstein, SfC. S^c. 



4. Lower red sandstone Rothe todte liegende. 



I. " Red and Green Marls." — These are best developed in Glouces- 

 tershire and Worcestershire, where they contain a subordinate white 

 sandstone, undistinguishable from certain varieties of the Keuper- 

 sandstone of the Germans. In the maris are situated most of the 

 brine springs, both in these counties and in Salop and Cheshire, 

 though some of them rise out of the inferior sandstone. But gyp- 

 sum is not so abundantly developed as in the south-western districts 

 of England, occurring rarely, and in thin stripes. There is no trace 

 of the " muschelkalk" beneath these marls, and they uniformly 

 graduate downwards into sandstone. 



II. " Red Sandstone and Conglomerates!' — The country north of 

 Shrewsbury affords the largest development of thick-bedded sand- 

 stones, of grey and reddish colours, in the hills of Hawkstone, Wern, 

 Grinshill, Nesscliff, &c. Ores of copper and manganese, with 

 sulphate of strontian, and chalcedony are of partial occurrence. 

 This group extends into Staffordshire and the east of Shropshire, 

 where it contains many bands of quartzose conglomerates, the dis- 

 integration of which gives a wild and sterile character to large tracts. 

 In other parts, particularly north and south of Kidderminster, where 

 the pure sandy beds prevail, are large districts of rye land, which 

 exhibit an agricultural character quite distinct from that of any 

 of the groups either above or below. In the southern parts of 

 Worcestershire these red sandstones and conglomerates are con- 

 cealed by a thick covering of gravel, and in Gloucester they are re- 

 duced to a very naiTow band. The division into thick beds, false 

 lamination, and want of cohesion, are the characters of this group. 



III. " Calcareous Conglomerates." — In North Worcesterand Salop 

 calcareous conglomerates, forming natural escarpments and dipping 

 beneath the above sandstones, are supposed to occupy the place of 

 the doloraitic conglomerate of the south-west, or magnesian lime- 



* Outlines Ccol. England and Wales, p. 278. 



