of the Forest of Dean Coal-field. 203 



An attempt has been made in the map to mark the outcrop of the principal 

 beds of coal. Those belonging- to the Rock or Lower Series, being further 

 from each other and thicker, are best known. Where the information was 

 obtained by personal observation, or from good authority, the outcrop is marked 

 by a continuous line; but where the data were doubtful or conjectural, by a 

 broken line. 



The "Churchway" or " Oakenhill," and the "Parkend High Delf" or 

 " Lowery" (Lower-high?) being most worked or best known, have been 

 selected to define the range of the upper or argillaceous beds, and the five 

 others (according to Mr. Mushet's List), which occur between them have 

 been omitted, from the crop being confined to the intervening narrow space. 



Those above the "Parkend High Delf" have not been ascertained satis- 

 factorily enough to be inserted, and the " Woor Green Delf" has been dotted 

 in, from conjecture, but after an attentive observation of the construction of 

 the ground, with the exception of its known outcrop near Cinderford. 



Iron Ore. 



The stratum of argillaceous iron ore, worked near Cinderford Bridge, occurs 

 immediately below the Trencher coal, and probably accompanies it round the 

 field, though the workings have not been sufficiently extensive to prove it. 



In the neighbourhood of Ailberton and towards Bream, the very upper- 

 most, and nearly the lowest beds of the limestone, seem to be those which 

 produce iron, but principally the uppermost. The position is marked by a 

 line of rocky ground, some parts of which, called "scowls", are the effects 

 of ancient excavations, and are nearly continuous from the Old Park Wood 

 to beyond Clearwell. 



The limestone which occurs in the millstone grit at Clearwell Meend is 

 oolitic, and partly shelly; but it is not thick, though probably continuous to 

 Oakwood Mill. 



Newent Coal-field. 

 The Newent coal-field, though not included in the map, deserves a brief 

 notice. The boundary of the field is not easily defined; but its northern 

 and western range may be sufficiently understood by drawing a line from Oxen- 

 hall Church westward along the brook, to the road from Newent to Ross, a 

 little to the west of Kilcot Green ; thence it may be traced on the west of Kilcot 

 Wood, where the coal measures are well marked, and along the road to Aston 

 Ingham as far as the end of the wood ; and afterwards by the western edge 

 of Clifford's Mine, or Meend, to where the common land joins the Newent 

 Woods, and even for a short distance within the woods. At this place the coal 



2 D 2 



