Border Countr?/ of Salop and North Wales; ^c. 261 



sponds generally with that of the associated limestone. The upper measures 

 contain a large quantity of carbonized wood^ and of iron pyrites, either in 

 cubes, arborescent, or mammillary. The beds of sandstone connected with 

 them contain remarkably fine impressions of some of the plants characteristic 

 of coal formations, together with large rounded masses of trap, and pebbles of 

 slate, limestone, and oolite. 



In a direction parallel to that of the formations now described of red sand- 

 stone, limestone, and coal, rises a range of hills of a more ancient character. 

 Their whole length is about eight miles. They commence immediately above 

 the remains of Merevale Abbey near Atherstone, and at this part of their 

 course they are intersected by transverse valleys, which are adorned with wood 

 and pasturage, and at the same time in consequence of their depth distinguish 

 this tract of country by the picturesque characters of alpine scenery. The 

 range diminishes in height as it advances towards the S. E. Beyond Griff 

 Hollow it sinks beneath the level marshy plain, which is watered by the river 

 Anker ; and, bursting again through the alluvium at Marston, it terminates 

 about half a mile to the south of the Ashby canal. 



The fundamental rock of these hills is grauwacke, instead of which quartz- 

 rock constitutes the middle portion of the range, the whole being traversed by 

 numerous beds and dykes of greenstone. It may obviate misapprehension to 

 mention, that this is the same range, which is represented in Conybeare and 

 Phillips's Geology as consisting of " coal-shale" and " millstone grit." The 

 grauwacke is seen at almost every opening into the hills from Merevale Abbey 

 to Hartshill, and nearer their southern extremity from Chilvers Coton to 

 Marston. Its dip is generally westward, varying from 20° to 70°. It com- 

 monly divides by its structure of separation into rhomboids, and exactly 

 resembles the various appearances of the same rock as seen on the confines of 

 Wales and Shropshire, and through the schistose districts of Devonshire and 

 Cornwall. Among its varieties the most interesting on account of its mineral 

 contents is that of Hartshill Heys, which constitutes the "country" of the 

 rich ore of manganese noticed in Geological Transactions, vol. i. p. 168. 

 2nd series, and which is like the killas at the southern promontory of Mount 

 Edgecumbe in Devonshire, micaceous and unctuous, of a deep red colour, 

 and readily crumbling into a rich red loam. Other specimens glitter with 

 mica throughout their substance, and may be considered as analogous to the 

 rock at the southern extremity of the Malvern Hills, which has been errone- 

 ously called mica-slate. A barren eminence between GrifF Hollow and the 

 Coventry canal contains slate, which may be compared to that quarried in the 

 neighbourhood of St. Germains in Cornwall. 



