186 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Feb. 21, 



properly so called. The line of demarcation between the Permian 

 and Bunter rocks has, however, lately been accurately defined by the 

 Geological Survey, and while some supposed Permian areas have 

 been expunged from the map, others, that up to this time have been 

 considered of Triassic age, have been added to the Permian. 



In the great work on the Silurian region, &c., the structure of the 

 Permian rocks is also truly described -near Alberbury, Enville, and in 

 South Staffordshire, and the beds of calcareous conglomerate near 

 Enville and the Lickey are mapped and clearly described*. 



Respecting the Breccias (which are quite distinct from these con- 

 glomerates), up to this date different views have been taken by geo- 

 logists from that advocated in this memoir, for most of the patches 

 have been considered either as immediately connected with volcanic 

 outbursts*)*, or else described as stratified trappoid conglomerates, 

 containing a few fragments of stratified rocks, the whole being sup- 

 posed to be derived from neighbouring igneous masses, or from me- 

 tamorphosed strata now concealed J. After a prolonged examination 

 of every part of these breccias in Staffordshire and Worcestershire, 

 and of every opening exposed, whether by nature or in quarries, and 

 after many hundred specimens were broken and examined by myself 

 and others on the Geological Survey, I have come to the conclusion 

 that in every locality they are truly sedimentary and rudely stratified, 

 and also that the fragments were rarely derived from neighbouring 

 rocks, but generally had travelled from a distance. It is satisfactory 

 to find, that as regards the stratified and lithological character of 

 these fragments, I am borne out by so distinguished an authority as 

 Dr. Buckland, who in 1819 most accurately described this breccia as 

 it occurs in the Bromsgrove Lickey and Clent Hill range, stating its 

 true sedimentary nature, and that it contains *' pebbles that agree in 

 substance with the quartz-rock of the Lower Lickey, mixed with 

 pebbles of common white quartz, black and variegated jasper, flinty 

 and chloritic slate, many varieties of porphyry, and of grey and 

 variegated com.pact and granular sandstone §." Allowing for differ- 

 ences of nomenclature, it is easy to see that the character of many of 

 the fragments is the same with some of those subsequently described 

 in this memoir. 



In the summer of 1852 I traced the boundaries of the Permian 

 breccias that run between the Bromsgrove Lickey and the Clent 

 Hills, having previously visited similar rocks on the flanks of the 

 Abberley and Malvern range. Though much struck with the size 

 and angularity of the fragments, and with the marly paste in which 

 they are imbedded, I did not then venture to propose to myself the 

 solution of these and other peculiarities, at which I have since arrived, 

 viz. that they are chiefly formed of the moraine matter of glaciers, 

 drifted and scattered in the Permian sea by the agency of icebergs. 



* ' Silurian System,' p. 59. f Ibid, pp. 138, 139, 496, &c. 



X Professor Phillips's " Geology of the Malvern Hills," &c., p. 162. See also 

 Mr. Jukes's '* Memoir on the South Staffordshire Coal-field." 



§ Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st Series, vol, v. pt. 2. p. 507. 



