1855.] RAMSAY PERMIAN BRECCIA. 191 



beds would cover the Caradoc sandstone ; and, were it not for the 

 fault, some of the marls and sandstones beneath the breccia would, if 

 prolonged, also cover these altered Silurian strata. It may therefore 

 be assumed that this old ridge was buried under lower Permian sedi- 

 ments before the breccia was accumulated, and therefore none of the 

 brecciated fragments would be likely to be derived from these altered 

 Caradoc sandstones. In this case, the nearest places to which we 

 can refer the component fragments of the breccia are the Longmynd 

 and the Silurian country east of the Stiper Stones. There we have 

 numerous beds of green, grey, and purple grits, together with rib- 

 boned slates near Shelve and in other places, identical in structure 

 and colour with those in the breccias, quartz-rock at the Stiper 

 Stones, and all the varieties of greenstone and felspathic ash men- 

 tioned in the list. The next nearest places where such ashes occur, 

 are Pembrokeshire and the remoter parts of North Wales ; but, for 

 other reasons besides proximity, it is safer to suppose they were 

 derived from the Cambrian and Silurian regions between Church 

 Stretton and Chirbury (Shropshire and Montgomeryshire), than from 

 the more distant counties of Pembroke, Merioneth, and Caernarvon. 

 The summit of the hill called Frankley Beeches is crowned by an 

 outlier of breccia ; and it also forms a piece of ground about a mile 

 and a half long a little to the west of Northfield, a good section of 

 which occurs in the lane leading from Northfield to Bangham pit. 

 The larger stones lie mostly towards the top. Many of them consist 

 of Caradoc limestone (Upper Caradoc of some geologists), and cal- 

 careous sandstone and conglomerate, some of them attaining a dia- 

 meter of about two feet. I submitted a collection of the fossiliferous 

 pieces to Mr. Salter, who determined the following species : — 



Strophomena compressa. Mytilus mytilimeris. 



Orthis calligramma. Encrinurus punctatus. 



Atrypa reticularis (very common). Favosites alveolaris. 



Spirifer trapezoidalis. Petraia bina. 



Leptgena depressa. subduplicata. 



transversaiis. Heliolites interstinctus. 



Rhynchonella semisulcata. Scalites (Trochus) lenticularis. 

 Pentamerus oblongus (rare and small). Euomphalus funatus, var. sculptus. 



undatus. Goniophora cymbaeformis. 



lens. Serpulites. 



Besides the blocks containing these fossils, the breccia includes 

 fragments of other calcareous sandstones, ribboned slate like that 

 near Shelve, quartz-rock, porphyritic felspathic ash, felstone and 

 greenstone, like that of the Lower Silurian rocks, purple conglo- 

 merates, similar to those of the Longmynd, and yellow sandstone 

 and black chert, the latter like that of the carboniferous limestone. 



The Upper Caradoc limestone and fragments of calcareous sand- 

 stone and conglomerate are peculiar. They do not resemble the 

 Caradoc beds of Walsall, Builth, Malvern, May Hill, or the Lickey ; 

 but, both lithologically and zoologically, they are like the equivalent 

 strata that rest unconformably on and once formed the beaches sur- 

 rounding the Longmynd and adjacent Lower Silurian rocks, where, 

 in situ, they contain green and purple slaty fragments and pieces of 



