254 Rev. James Yates on the Structure of the 



quartz-rock like that of Bromsgrove Lickey, for which it is quarried as a gra- 

 vel-pit. When struck with a hammer, it falls in flakes from the sides of the 

 pit, the pebbles dividing by cleavages, which coincide with the surfaces of the 

 flakes of greenstone. To the south of this tract of decomposed greenstone, 

 about Oldenhall, Foxcote, Prescot, and Wollescote, we find sandstones resem- 

 bling those of coal-formations, and containing the remains of ferns and of trees 

 petrified by calcareous infiltration. The line, along which the greenstone 

 may be thus traced, is parallel to the general direction of the chain of hills 

 before described, and 2 or 3 miles apart from it. The coal-formation, which 

 lies between, is usuafly considered as a part of the South Staffordshire coal- 

 field, but is separated from it by the Rowley Hills*. 



About 2 miles south of Oldbury, and the S.E. termination of the Rowley 



* A collection of saline springs upon Pensnet Chace in this minor coal-field, has lately ob- 

 tained some celebrity as a resort for invalids. Four of the springs have been analysed by Mr. 

 J. T. Cooper of Lambeth, who has thus stated the gaseous and saline ingredients of the well, in 

 which the springs unite. A wine pint contains 



Carbonic Acid 2.1 cubic inches 



Azote .4 



Muriate of Soda . . 49.75 grains 



Lime . . 19.07 



Magnesia . 7.50 



Iron . . 0.13 



Carbonate of Lime . . 1.50 



Magnesia 1.70 



Iron . . .90 



80.55 



This water goes by the name of Ladywood Spa, or Cradley Salt Well. A spring of water 

 probably containing the same ingredients, occurs in a coal-mine at Brierley Hill ; and another, 

 which appears to be nearly saturated, in a coal-mine on Cradley Heath in the parish of Rowley, 

 belonging to the British Iron Company. In the gravel to the west of Brierley Hill, the stones 

 are sometimes found to bo impregnated with salt. Ail these springs are situated nearly in the 

 direction of a straight line, running E. and W. across the coal-field, and coinciding with the po- 

 sition of a fault, through which the brine probably rises from the strata beneath the coal-forma- 

 tion. The Moira Bath near Ashby-de-la-Zouch seems to be similarly circumstanced. Its con- 

 tents are the same with the Pensnet Spa, except that they are without iron. The water is there 

 obtained by means of a shaft 200 yards deep, and rises from beneath the coal measures. 



At a place called Windmill End, between the salt springs and the Rowley Hills, a coal-mine has 

 been worked, in which, at about ISOyards from the surface, a stratum of coal was found 14 yards 

 ill thickness, but in a vertical position. A fault adjoins this mine on the side next to the Rowley 

 Hills ; and in the same situation a rock of conglomerate or calcareous breccia occurs near the base 

 of the hills. 



