126 ME. W. WICKHAM KING ON THE PEEMIAN [Peb. 1S99, 



along this line at the time when the Middle Permian rocks were 

 being laid down, then all the pebbles in the Permian conglomerates 

 mi^ht have come from this common source.^ 



The source from which the fragments composing the trappoid 

 breccia were derived may not have been the same as that from which 

 these Middle Permian conglomerates were brought, and, so far as I 

 know, no one has attempted to prove the contrary. But, on the 

 other hand, if the direction of travel of material was approximately 

 the same in both cases, the two sets of deposits would mutually 

 interpret each other and afford a strong confirmation of any theory 

 which would supply a reasonable explanation of both. It has been 

 seen that the trappoid breccias are thickest and coarsest in the 

 southern parts, and thin away to the north. With the exception of 

 the Carboniferous Limestone-pebbles, no fragments occur, in eiiher 

 the Permian calcareous conglomerates or the trappoid breccias 

 described, of any rocks that are not in place in the Midlands, and 

 these rocks all lie to the south and east. If the source of this 

 material be sought west and north-west of the South-east Shropshire 

 and South Staffordshire regions, it is true that the Welsh Border 

 (Wrekin, etc.) will supply the Carboniferous Limestone-pebbles, but 

 not the characteristic lithological types of the dolomitic Wenlock 

 Limestones of Abberley nor the peculiar yellow Woolhope Lime- 

 stones of the Lickey type. 



Purthermore, the Ordovician is well developed along the Welsh 

 Border. But the Ordovician has afforded no fragments to the 

 Middle Permian conglomerates or to the trappoid breccias of the 

 regions described, and the larger fragments of Llandovery sand- 

 stones found in the trappoid breccias are composed of materials 

 identical with those in place at the Lower Lickey, namely, Cam- 

 brian quartzite and Archaean grits and hornstones, showing that 

 they were laid down on a Cambrian and pre-Cambrian floor. 



It is a remarkable fact that these Permian calcareous con- 

 glomerates consist practically of pebbles derived from the pre- 

 Permian down to the Woolhope Limestone ; they are, except near 

 the Lickey, ' limestone-conglomerates.' On the other hand, the 

 later trappoid breccias of the Upper Permian are composed chiefly 

 of Archaean materials, especially near the Lickey, with, in certain 

 localities, many fragments of highly fossiliferous Llandovery 

 sandstones and beach-rocks, and small quantities of Woolhope 

 Limestone. The presence of the rocks down to the Woolhope in 

 the Middle Permian limestone-conglomerates, and of the rocks 

 at and below the Woolhope in the Upper Permian trappoid breccias, 

 could be explained easily if the area which furnished the material to 

 these Permian limestone-conglomerates had been eroded down as a 

 whole through the Carboniferous Limestone to the Woolhope during 

 Middle Permian time, while in the succeeding trappoid-breccia 



"I Compare Mr. H. T. Brown's conclusions, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xlv 

 (1889) p. 27. 



