1867.] BKODIE — DEIFT IN WARWICKSHIRE. 211 



not imfrequent ; there are also Rhynclionella, sp. ?, Spirifer anti^ 

 quissimus, Modiolojasis, sp. ?, and a Bivalve undeterminable. Litho- 

 lologically, the pebbles are exactly like those from Budleigh, and were 

 at once recognized^ with the fossils, by Messrs. Salter, "Woodward, and 

 Yicary. Although at present the fossils are so few, others may in 

 lime be discovered; but at all events the presence of the above 

 species in this district is very interesting ; and it may not be unrea- 

 sonable to conclude that the upper red marl and sands with the 

 pebbles once capped the Keuper in "Warwickshire, and the marl 

 having been denuded the heavier materials were scattered about as 

 we now find them, and that many of these reddish, white, and brown 

 quartzose pebbles were so derived, and had a similar origin with those 

 in Devonshire. 



Probably up to the Glacial epoch the Upper "New Eed marls ex- 

 isted here in situ, and were for the most part denuded by the various 

 oscillations and great changes of level which then took place ; and 

 the Lower Silurian pebbles contained in it were again rolled and 

 scattered about over a more or less limited area, and intermingled 

 with the other materials brought from a distance by the agency of 

 ice. These pebbles, of course, must have been deposited in the 

 New Red Sandstone itself, at a much more ancient period, during the 

 formation of the red marls, coeval with the equivalent Triassic bed 

 in Devonshire ; and the inference would seem to be that this great 

 Lower Silurian formation, which is now so largely developed in 

 Normandy, and which has left only a remnant in Cornwall, formerly 

 occupied a much larger area in the south-west, and may also have 

 had more extensive ramifications towards the north-east. This is 

 only another of the numerous examples of the almost total destruc- 

 tion of an extensive formation — one of the broken links in the chain 

 of geological evidence which we often look for in vain, but which, 

 when found, is of much interest and importance. 



Dr. Buckland long ago showed that many of the boulders so pro- 

 fusely scattered in the Northern Drift might be traced to their source 

 in the higher beds of the Trias ; but no doubt a great many, as I have 

 suggested, came from other sources. In general the prevailing forma- 

 tions in a given district have mainly helped to form the matter of the 

 local drifts ; but hereabouts the Keuper sandstone, though having 

 been much denuded, is by no means abundantly distributed in it ; and 

 the same remark applies to the Lias, which is very rarely met with : 

 but this is less surprising, if most of the materials of which it is com- 

 posed were brought by ice from a distance, which is now generally 

 conceded. Here and there, in the tract under review, some large, 

 rounded, erratic boulders, and square, almost tabular blocks, may 

 always be found, though at wide intervals. In a heap of stones by 

 the roadside, evidently Drift picked off the fields, two miles south 

 of Shipston-on-Stour, at the extreme northern end of the county, I 

 noticed the following rocks :■ — large and small boulders of granite and 

 greenstone, several varieties of sandstone, chert with fossils from the 

 Mountain-limestone, a large fragment of a Lepidodendron in carbo- 

 niferous sandstone, very hard chalk, and many flints, mostly of small 



