120 



niferous limestone beneath this red sandstone, is exhibited on a very 

 large scale in the fine escarpments of Llanymynech, Porth-y-wain 

 and Treflach. The upper part is somewhat magnesian, and con- 

 tains few fossils, with thin veins of copper ore ; the lower is a fine 

 subcrystalline limestone, in which are found Producta hemisphcerica, 

 the large basaltiform Coral, and many other fossils characteristic of 

 the formation. Faults are numerous, and in the principal one run- 

 ning from north by east to south by west, the coal is upcast 180 

 yards. These dislocations increase as they rise upon the hill sides, 

 and decrease as they range towards the plains of Shropshire. 

 III. " Central and Southern Coal-Jields of Salop." 



The author mentions that he has accumulated many new facts 

 respecting the coal-fields of the Clee Hills, since his communications 

 in 1832, the principal of which are. That at the Tittei'stone Clee, the 

 new works established by Mr. Lewis, have proved the existence of 

 productive coal seams under the Hoar Edge, on the western side of 

 the great basaltic dyke. He corrects the observation formerly made 

 that some of the faults which affect the elevated tract of the Brown 

 Clee Hills are the fissures of eruption of the basalt which crowns 

 their summit. These faults, running from north to south and tra- 

 versed by others trending from east to west, are all upcasts, and 

 contain no basaltic matter, the chief eruption of which is supposed 

 to have taken place at the north end of the Abdon Burf. Various 

 details are given respecting this poor coal tract, which, though 

 interesting in the theory of the formation of coal basins, cannot be 

 included in an abstract. The mountain limestone is entirely absent, 

 the coal resting on old red sandstone, as previously remarked by 

 Mr, Wright of the Ordnance Survey.* 



IV. Forest of Wyre. 



In this tract are comprehended all the carboniferous strata rang- 

 ing from two miles south-west of Bridgnorth to the Abberley Hills, 

 the central and broadest portion of which is called the Forest of 

 Wyre. The outline of this coal tract is very irregular, and the 

 measures rest upon and are surrounded by the old red sandstone, 

 except near Bewdley, where they are flanked by the new red sand- 

 stone, and on the sides of the Abberley Hills, south of the Hundred- 

 house, where they have been deposited in thin patches upon transi- 

 tion rocks. Accounts are given of the different seams of coal and 

 layers of ironstone which have been worked,near Deux Hill, Billings- 

 ley, Stanley, Mamble, Fensax, &c. The greater part of these 

 works, including all the deep shafts, are abandoned, owing chiefly 

 to the poor and pyritous quality of the coal. Sweet coal is of 

 rare occurrence, though some thin beds occur at Lower Harcourt 

 near Kinlet. These sulphureous coals are little used, except for 

 drying hops and burning lime; but the sandstones, though only par- 

 tially quarried, afford excellent building material. Some peculiar 

 conglomerates, having a matrix of decomposed trap, occupy the 

 lower beds of the series south of Bewdley. In general the strata 



* Geol. Proceedings, vol. ii. p. 7. 



