117 



istone of the north-east, of England. They are largely burnt for 

 lime to the east of the Lickey and Clent Hills, where they are of 

 irregular thicknesses. These strata are repeated at Enville, the 

 Bowells, and at Coton, &c., between Kidderminster and Bridg- 

 north. 



The chief imbedded fragments are of limestone, which at Cotoa 

 and the Bowells being sometimes oolitic, are supposed to have been 

 derived from Orelton and the Clee Hills. Fragments of old red sand- 

 stone, quartz, and coal grits with impressions of plants, occur in 

 the impure beds which pass into calcareous grits. This calca- 

 reous conglomerate can only be partially detected in the red sand- 

 stone of Aple)', Nedge Hill and Lilleshall terraces, which form the 

 eastern boundary of the coal-field of Coalbrook-dale; and similar 

 slender bands, around the Dudley coal-field, may possibly be com- 

 posed of the same conglomerate. In the west of Shropshire these 

 strata swell out into a distinct ridge of about two miles in length, 

 extending from Cardeston to Alberbury, where they have been 

 mentioned in previous abstracts by Professor Sedgwick* and by the 

 author, and where they put on many of the characters of the 

 dolomitic conglomerate and contain nests lined with crystals of 

 dolomite. 



IV. " Lower New Red Sandstone" — In Worcester and Salop the 

 natural escarpment above alluded to exhibits sandstone and argilla- 

 ceous marls, sometimes of great thickness, underlying the calcareous 

 conglomerate. As these are seen in several places to pass down con- 

 formably into the coal-measures, the author identifies them with the 

 lower new red of the North of England, which Professor Sedgwick 

 has shown to be the equivalent of the rothe todte liegende of German 

 geologists. Such relations are seen in the eastern parts of the 

 Lickey Hills, on the southern and eastern face of the coal-field of 

 Coalbrook-dale, and in parts of the Shrewsbury coal-field. 



At Cantern bank near Bridgnorth and along a part of the bed 

 of the Severn, these strata dip away conformably from the under- 

 lying coal-measures. Similar relations are seen at Well batch near 

 Shrewsbury, and still better at Coedway near Alberbury, where 

 the red sandstones and shales graduate upwards into the dolomitic 

 conglomerate, and downwards into coal-bearing strata. On the 

 whole this subformation, containing sandstone, shale, and grits, 

 has in some parts much the external appearance of the old red 

 sandstone, and in others of the coal-measures, and impressions 

 of plants have been found in it near Lilleshall and at Wellbatch. 

 As coal has been extracted in many parts of the North of England 

 from beneath sandstone of this age, the author speculates on the 

 probability of similar success attending well-regukded enterprises 

 in Salop, Stafford, and Worcester. He alludes to a great sinking 

 now going on between the edge of the Dudley coal-field and Bir- 

 mingham, the shafts of which he believes are passing through strata 

 ©f this age. 



* Geol. Proceedings, vol. i. p. 345. 



