Vol. 57.] COAL-MEASIIKES OF THE SHEOPSHIHE COALFIELDS. 95 



Marcus Scott had represented the line of junction of the two series 

 as met with at various depths along a valley-like line. This 

 locality had been already quoted as affording evidence of a period 

 of mountain-upheaval in the middle of Coal-Measure times, and the 

 Author's account was more favourable to this than Scott's ; but 

 in any case the bondings were comparatively feeble. The other 

 localities quoted afforded very little satisfactory evidence of any 

 great upheaval at this period, as was shown by the speaker seriatim ; 

 and there was no proof that the patches in relation with the 

 Haffield Breccia belonged to the Upper Coal-Measures — or had 

 been originally deposited where now found. On the other hand, 

 the neighbouring Upper Coals at Abberley are themselves inverted, 

 as pointed out by Murchison. 



The authority of Prof. Suess had been invoked for the existence 

 of an upheaval at that time throughout Europe ; but the upheaval 

 to which Suess referred, as was evident from the context, was one 

 at the end of the Carboniferous Limestone Period — his ' Upper Car- 

 boniferous ' embracing the whole of our Coal-Measures. If, therefore, 

 there were three great upheavals — at the beginning, middle, and end 

 of the Coal-Measure Period — that period must have been one of great 

 disturbance, alternating with the most tranquil conditions necessary 

 for the formation of coal, a supposition which was scarcely credible. 



Prof. Watts pointed out that Scott's paper was founded on the 

 interpretation of a faulted and disturbed district. He interpreted it 

 on the assumption that the Middle Coal-Measures were horizontal; 

 the present Author supposed that the Upper Coal-Measures were 

 horizontal. It was significant that in these two cases theoretical 

 results of far-reaching importance were brought out from the careful 

 consideration and plotting of the sections obtained during colliery- 

 operations. 



Prof. Hull also spoke. 



The Author said that these Upper (red) Measures extended from 

 at least the Wrexham district on the north, to the Forest of Wyre on 

 the south, as well as to North and South Staffordshire. The Main 

 Sulphur Coal, the only workable seam in them in the Shropshire 

 district, is found in the Shrewsbury, Coalbrookdale, and Forest-of- 

 Wyre fields. As the Author believed, it had its representative in 

 South Staffordshire ; it was a true coal-seam, with its own proper 

 underclay, and must have been deposited horizontally. The inter- 

 Carboniferous folds, though very important practically and econo- 

 mically, could not be called ' mountains,' as their greatest amplitude 

 was about 160 yards, the thickness of the productive series. Whether 

 these Upper (red) Measures ought to be classified as Permian, the 

 Author was not competent to decide on palseontological. grounds, 

 but they undoubtedly contain numerous thin coal-beds. 



The Lower or Gannister Series was not represented in Coalbrook- 

 dale, unless the Little Flint Coal and the immediately contiguous 

 beds could be regarded as such. The Carboniferous Limestone 

 and Millstone Grit also thinned out and died away here. 



