Yol. 68.] IN THE ' pekmian' eoczs of hamstead. 641 



some detail by Sir Roderick Murchison in his famous ' Silurian 

 System' (1839). He noted (pp. 51-55) the presence of a lower 

 group of 



* Sandstones and grits chiefly of a red colour, sometimes argillaceous, very 

 frequently calcareous, associated with deep brown-red shales and marls, 

 occasionally spotted green. . . . Towards the base many fragments of 

 impressions of plants appear in beds of sandstone, which graduate into other 

 and lower strata, containing thin seams of coal, from which there is a 

 conformable descending passage into the true Carboniferous System.' 



This group he termed Lower jS'ew Red Sandstone or Lower 

 Permian, and regarded it as the equivalent of the Rothliegende 

 of Germany. This Lower Permian he found to be succeeded by a 

 second group containing calcareous conglomerates which, he asserts 

 (oj). cit. p. 46), ' there can be no hesitation in referring to the age of 

 the Magnesian Limestone ' of the North-East of England and to the 

 Zechstein or Upper Permian of the Continent. The bedded nature 

 of the associated ' trappean ' breccias of the Clent Hills was not 

 recognized by him, but they are described as trap erupted after the 

 consolidation of the Carboniferous deposits (p. 496). 



In the Enville area he described the highest Permian sandstones 

 as graduating upwards into the succeeding jSTew Ped Sandstone or 

 Trias (oj). supra cit. p. 58). 



Sir Andrew Ramsay ^ subsequently showed that the Breccias were 

 ' truly sedimentary and rudely stratified,' and had a definite and 

 constant horizon in the Permian succession. In his typical area, 

 that around Enville, the succession is thus given (pp. cit. p. 188) : — 



1 Sandstone and red marls. 

 Coarse breccias. 

 Sandstones and red marls, containing two beds of calcareous 

 conglomerate. 



In the Clent district, at the southern extremity of the South 

 Staffordshire Coalfield his sequence, again in ascending order, is 

 (op. cit. p. 190) :— 



f Breccia 450 feet. 

 Alternations of red marl and sandstone, with two calcareous 

 bauds. 



J. B. Jukes,^ in his classic memoir on the South Staffordshire 

 Coalfield, practically adopts Ramsay's arrangement of these rocks, 

 but notes that there are three beds of calcareous conglomerate in 

 South Staffordshire. He gives it as his opinion that the Lower 

 Permian lies unconformably upon the Carboniferous (p. 136). 



Prof. E. HuU,'^ who mapped much of the ground covered by these 

 rocks, proposed the name of ' Salopian ' for the special type of 



■^ ' On the Occurrence of Angular, Subangular, Polished & Striated Frag- 

 ments & Boulders in the Permian Breccia of Shropshire, Worcestershire, &e.' 

 Q. J. G. S. vol. xi (1855) p. 186. 



2 ' The South Staffordshire Coalfield ' Mem. Geol. Surv. 1859. 



^ 'The Triassic & Permian Rocks of the Midland Counties of England* 

 Mem. Geol. Surv. 1869. 



Q.J.G. S. K'o.272; 2z 



