588 MR. R. D. TEENOX 01^ THE GEOLOGY AND [DeC. 1912, 



I wish to thank Prof. T. McKenny Hughes, r.R.S., and Prof. T. 

 G. Bonney, F.R.S., for many helpful suggestions and for their 

 valuable criticism of the manuscript. To Dr. E. A. iS'ewell Arber 

 I am especially indebted, not only for his constant advice, but 

 also for the personal labour which he has undertaken in checking 

 my determinations of the fossil plants recorded in this paper. 

 I also wish to record my thanks to all those gentlemen who have 

 permitted me to visit the collieries and clay-pits under their 

 charge, and especially to Mr. Evans, of Coventry, for allowing me 

 to examine the cores from several important borings for coal 

 put down by the Xorth Warwickshire Coal Company.^ My friend 

 Dr. L. Moysey, F.G.S., of I^ottingham has kindly prepared most 

 of the photographs, but a few are by Mr. Tarns of Cambridge. 



The sketch-map and vertical section which illustrate this paper 

 (PI. LXI) are based on the 1-inch maps of the Geological Survey 

 mentioned below, and on my own mapping of a large part of the 

 district on the 6-inch scale. 



II. Historical IIeview. 



A brief history of the literature relating to the Warwickshire 

 Coalfield will now be given, in order to trace the development of 

 the opinions which have been held by previous writers on the 

 geology of this district. 



Up to the close of the 18th century some account of the mineral 

 waters of the county had been published, together with a few 

 notes on the rocks. On William Smith's (15) Geological Map of 

 England, published in 1815, the ' Millstone Grit,' the exposed 

 Coal Measures and the red rocks separatiug the latter from the 

 Lias are all clearly indicated. During the next forty years these 

 red rocks are briefly mentioned by Auckland (19j, Con\beare & 

 Phillips (22), De La Beche (31), and by Murchison & Strickland 

 (40). By all these authors the red rocks were regarded as Ne\v 

 Bed Sandstone, including under that term both the Keuper and 

 certain underlying beds thought to be of Bunter age. The few 

 fossils obtained during this period, which were described by 

 Buckland (37) and Lloyd (50), were therefore considered to be 

 Triassic fossils. It was not until 1855 that Sir Andrew llamsay 

 (55) and Mr. H. H. Howell (59) showed that the Bunter was 

 absent from the greater part of Warwickshire, and that the beds 

 in question should be relegated to the Permian. Subsequently, 

 Prof. Hull (69) repeated Mr. Howell's description of these rocks, and 

 referred to them as part of his Salopian type of Permian ; and, in 

 the absence of any definite paLneontological evidence to the contrary, 

 they have continued to be so regarded by subsequent authors. 



The hard quartzites were originally mapped as Millstone Grit, 

 and the indurated shales with diorites, which underlie the Pro- 

 ductive Coal Measures and closely resemble them in lithological 

 characters, as Lower Coal Measures. It was not until 1882 that 



1 The details of these boreholes cannot, for conimei-cial reasons, be jDublished 

 in this paper. 



