640 ME. V. H. HAEDAKEE ON A rOSSIL-BEAEIXG HOEIZOISr [DcC. 1912^ 



and are classed and coloured upon the original maps of H.M. 

 Geological Survey as 'Permian.'" The colliery-shafts are carried 

 down through the lower rocks of this so-called ' Permian ' into 

 productire Coal Measures below, which are the underground con- 

 tinuation of those of the visible South Staffordshire Coalfield, the 

 well-known ' Thick Coal ' itself being worked in this colliery. 



The red rocks cut through in the colliery- shafts between the 

 surface of the country and the grey productive Coal Measures below 

 are collectively referred to in the present paper — for the sake 

 of convenience — under the title of the Hamstead Colliery 

 Series. 



The strata of the Colliery Series rise to the outcrop west of the 

 colliery for a distance of about 2 miles, until they are cut oii by 

 the well-known Eastern Boundary-Fault of the South Staffordshire 

 Coalfield, which there limits the ' Permian ' outcrop in the western 

 direction. 



A short distance east of the colliery, the eastern limit of the 

 * Permian ' outcrop is reached, and is succeeded by the outcrop of 

 the Trias. 



In the narrow band of ' Permian ' ground which intervenes 

 between the colliery and the Triassic boundary-line, the local 

 remainder of the so-called ' Permian ' crops out. Its strata follow 

 conformably upon those of the Hamstead-Colliery Series, and are 

 overlain unconformably eastwards by the basement-beds of th& 

 Trias. This higher Permian Series is excavated in several local 

 quarries, and will be referred to throughout the present paper aa 

 the Hamstead-Quarry Series. Excavated in this outcrop of 

 the Hamstead-Quarry Series, about a quarter of a mile east of the 

 Hamstead shafts, are the extensive marl-quarries or brick-clay pits 

 of Messrs. Turner & Hadley. 



About two years ago, I noticed excellently-preserved fossil rain- 

 prints and sun-cracks on the surface of the loose blocks of stone 

 in these quarries. This prompted me to make a careful detailed 

 examination and study of the so-called ' Permian ' of the locality 

 and of the surrounding country, resulting in my discovery of many 

 fossils in one of the component divisions of these so-called ' Permian * 

 rocks, in the fixation of the place of this division in the order of the 

 successive local divisions previously accepted, and inferentially in 

 the determination of the true geological age of the fossil-bearing* 

 division as compared with the divisions of the typical Permian 

 System of Central Europe. 



The object of the present paper is to give a summary of my work 

 and its results. 



(2) Previous Research and Opinion. 



(a) Stratigraphical. — The Midland formations, hitherto col- 

 lectively coloured as Permian upon geological maps of the South 

 Staffordshire Coalfield and its surroundings, were first described in 



