Vol. 55.] CONGLOMEEA.TES OF THE LOWER SEVERN BASIN. 99 



Mr. CantrilP discovered *the presence in these [calcareous] con- 

 glomerates [of South-east Shropshire] of rounded masses oiSpirorhiS' 

 limestone.' 



[The foregoing references are all the original observations 

 hitherto published on these Permian conglomerates ; but the 

 Permian breccia literature is more or less closely connected with 

 their origin. 



Bnckland^ thought that the materials composing the Permian 

 hreccias near the Lickey came from hill-ranges to the south. 

 Murchison^ considered that some of the patches of Permian breccia 

 consisted only of, and rested upon, solid trappean rocks, but that 

 others near Malvern were the basal conglomerate of his New Red 

 system, and were locally derived. Phillips * stated that ' the origin 

 of the fragments was a not-far-removed metamorphic range now 

 invisible.' ' Ramsay '^ claimed that the Welsh Border was the source, 

 and alleged that there was a Permian glacial period. The proofs of 

 the latter conclusion have been subjected to much criticism by 

 Phillips/ Bonney,** Prestwich,^ Hughes, ^° Sir A. Geikie,^^ and others. 

 Jukes gave it as his opinion ^^ that ' the fragments might be derived 

 from adjacent rocks now concealed under the Permian and New 

 Red Sandstone of the neighbourhood.' Prof. HulP^ quoted Ram- 

 say's and Jukes's views, and stated that 'the southern margin of 

 the Permian basin .... was probably formed at no great distance to 

 the southward of the Permian areas of South Staffordshire and 

 Warwickshire by the upraising of the old Silurian rocks.' 



When Prof. Lapworth made known in 1882 ^^ the Cambrian and 

 pre-Cambrian age of the old ridges of the Lickey and Nuneaton, 

 the local derivation of these materials that he has ever since advo- 

 cated became more plausible. Mr. H. T. Brown,^^ in his brilliant 

 paper on the Permian rocks of Leicestershire, demonstrated that the 



^ ' Contrib. to Greol. of Wyre Forest Coalfield,' p. 34 (Kidderoiinster, 

 1895). 



2 Trans. G-eol. Soc. ser. 1, vol. v (1819) p. 506. 



3 ' Silur. System,' 1839, pp. 138, 419, 493, & 496 ; see also pp. 50-53. 



* Mem. Geol. Surv, vol. ii, pt. i (1848) p. 162 ; see also Trans. Malvern 

 Nat. F. C. pt. i (1855) pp. 38 & 39. 



° Up to 1855 the Permian brescias were included in the Lower New Eed 

 Sandstone. 



^ Eep. Brit. Assoc. 1854(L'pool), pp. 93, 94; Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xi 

 '(1855) p. 185 ; and lecture to Roy. Inst., April 24th, 1857. 



^ Trans. Malvern Nat. F. C. pt. i (1855) pp. 38 & 39. 



« Eep. Brit. Assoc. 1886 (Birmingham) p. 10 ; ' Midland Nat.' vol. ix (1886) p. 1 . 



^ ' Geology,' vol. ii (1888) p. 133. 



1° Proc. Cambridge Phil. Soc. vol. viii, pt. iii (1893) p. 111. 



11 ' Memoir of Sir A. C. Eamsay,' 1895, p. 362. 



12 Mem. Geol. Surv. 1859, ' South Staffs Coalfield,' 2nd ed. p. 15. 



13 Mem. Geol. Surv. 1869, ' Triassic & Permian Eocks of the Midlands, 

 pp. 15-19, 28 & 29 ; see also ' Coalfields of Great Britain,' 4th ed. (1881) pp. 132, 

 167, & 521-528. 



1* See Birm. Phil. Soc. Proc. vol. iii (1882) pp. 237, 238 ; Geol. Mag. 1882, 

 pp. 565, 566 ; Brit. Assoc. Handbook (Birmingham, 1886) ; and Proc. Geol. 

 Assoc, vol. XV (1898) pp. 372-377. 



15 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xlv (1889) p. 1 ; see also T. G. Bonney, 

 ' Midland Nat.' vol. xv (1892) pp. 25 & 49. 



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