Border Country of Salop and North Wales ; ^c. 255 



HillSj we find a ridge of coarse conglomerate, called Barnford Hill. It extends 

 about a quarter of a mile in a direction nearly N. and S. Its western de- 

 clivity is very abrupt, and faces the hills and the village of Rowley. The 

 strata rise towards this side at a high angle, their inclination to the horizon 

 decreasing as they pass eastward. The ridge terminates towards the south 

 in red sandstone near Brand Hall. Towards the north the same conglomerate 

 is seen in the bed of the brook at Oldbury; and the principal head of this 

 stream, called the Lady Well, is remarkably clear and copious like the springs 

 of limestone countries. The pebbles of the Barnford Hill conglomerate 

 consist chiefly of encrinal limestone. With these are intermixed pebbles of 

 quartz and hornstone. The pebbles are sometimes seen impressing their 

 forms on one another, so as to raise the suspicion that some of them have at a 

 former period become soft, although their hardness is now restored. Some of 

 the limestone pebbles are carious on their surfaces, showing that their sub- 

 stance has been partially dissolved. The cement of the pebbles is sometimes 

 calcareous spar, and sometimes a sandstone containing clay together with car- 

 bonate of lime ; and this sandstone often presents itself lying in thick masses 

 in the midst of the conglomerate rock. 



About 5 miles from Birmingham, near the road to Walsall a petrifying 

 spring has been observed, probably originating in beds of calcareous breccia 

 similar to those of Barnford Hill and Hagley Park. 



It is further deserving of record, that the proprietors of the Park Field Col- 

 liery at Wednesbury, a district where the main coal disappears, and the fun- 

 damental limestone was presumed also to have a tendency to crop out, have 

 recently come to regular beds of limestone at the depth of more than 100 feet 

 after sinking through the usual coal beds and a coarse grit underneath them. 

 The highest bed of this limestone, which is of a bluish colour, contains much 

 clay and abounds in producti and terebratulse. 



4. The Bromsgrove Lickey presents one of the most interesting examples 

 of the older rocks rising in a detached mass through the red sandstone, and 

 has long attracted the attention of geologists. I offer the following remarks 

 as supplementary to Professor Buckland's paper in the 5th volume of the Geo- 

 logical Transactions. Omitting the small deposits of coal and the recent 

 beds of clay and gravel, the strata composing this range are of three kinds ; 

 the red sandstone, the limestone, and the quartz-rock. 



The red sandstone incircles the others, and occupies by far the greater 

 part of the country through an extent of 20 or 30 miles on every side. Its 

 stratification is very even, and nearly horizontal. It is seen remarkably well 

 at Tardebig, 3 miles south of the Lickey, both in a quarry and at the en- 

 voi. II. — SECOND SERIES. 2 L 



