284 Mr. Brockbank and Mr. C. E. de Range on 



and is very hard when freshly quarried, but breaks up inta 

 angular fragments, very readily, when exposed to weather, 

 and afterwards becomes harder and harder under exposure 

 to the atmosphere. It appears to have been formed by the- 

 destruction of the adjacent Upper Coal Measures, which 

 consisted of alternating marls, hematite iron, clays, and 

 limestones. These, all triturated and mixed together,, 

 would form a very strong natural cement, and this would 

 exactly describe these purple beds. It is, possibly, open tO' 

 question, in the opinion of one of us, whether these 

 " brecciated marls " may not really belong to the Permians, 

 if they are not a transition zone, representing the " brock- 

 ram," " breccia," or " crab rock " of the North of England 

 and South of Scotland. 



The first limestones are tilted a little by slight step faults 

 which occur at Slade Lane, the strata there being also bent 

 over in a curve to the southwards, but the general parallelism 

 of the beds is very marked, and the whole section, when 

 viewed from end to end, shows a very parallel set of strata,, 

 without a break, and with only very slight faults to disturb 

 its perfect regularity. These brecciated marls abound in 

 nodules, termed by Warwickshire workmen " fish-eyes," 

 [See H. T. Marten, M.I.C.E., F.G.S., in Underground Water 

 Report, drawn up by C. E. de Ranee. — British Association 

 Reporty 1882] from their likeness to the eye of a fish, but 

 for no other reason. They form round green spots in the 

 purple beds, and with dark centres ; varying in diameter 

 from J^-inch up to ij^ -inches. These "fish-eyes " are every- 

 where present in the strata of the whole section, and are 

 believed to be coprolites, as the central nucleus has been 

 tested by Mr. Fowler, of Owens College, and found to 

 yield carbon and phosphoric acid. The microscopic 

 examination of these spots reveals their coprolitic character. 



The bedding is extremely irregular, and is marked by 

 green partings of sandy marl. The mass is also broken up 



