r 545 ] 



XXXIII. — Memoir descriptive of a Series of coloured Sections of the Cuttings 

 on the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway. 



By H. E. STRICKLAND, Esq., M.A., F.G.S. 



[Read June 10, 1840, and June 16^ 1841.] 



Plate XLVIII. 



CONTENTS. 



Preface, p. 545. 



Description of the Deposits, p. 547. 



§ 1 . New Red Sandstone, p. 547. 



§ 2. Red Marl, p. 550. 



§3. Lower Lias, p. 551. 



§ 4. Marine Gravel without flints, p. 553. 



§ 5. Marine Gravel with flints, p. 554. 

 § 6. Fluviatile Gravel, p. 554. 

 § 7. Local Gravel, p. 555. 

 § 8. Modern Alluvia, p. 555. 

 Conclusion, p. 555. 



PREFACE. 



A FEW years ago, when the various lines of railway in this country were first 

 projected, it was usual to hear geologists congratulate themselves on the acquisi- 

 tions which the science would receive from the numerous opportunities that would 

 be thus afforded for studying the British strata. These anticipations have been 

 in some degree fulfilled, but it is undeniable that during the last ten years many 

 golden opportunities of studying geological phsenomena and collecting specimens 

 have been irrecoverably lost, in consequence of the railway sections not having 

 been visited by geologists during the brief period when they were exposed to view. 

 The practice commonly followed by engineers of covering up the " slopes" or sides 

 of the cuttings with vegetable soil as soon as the excavations are completed, detracts 

 greatly from the advantages which the science would otherwise derive from them ; 

 for unless some geologist happens to inspect the section at the right moment, the 

 interesting phaenomena which it discloses are buried for ever beneath the verdant 



