262 UPPER COAL-MEASURES OP THE MIDLANDS* [May I9OI. 



The limestone is best seen in Illey Brook near the old mill. Further 

 examination of the area last year made ifc clear that the Red 

 Coal-Measure Clays of Jukes consisted near Old Hill of red marls 

 lithologically similar to the Etruria Marls, and that they also con- 

 tained the characteristic bands of green grits. Some of these are 

 coarse breccias, and contain large angular fragments of Lickey 

 quartzite, the nearest outcrop of which is 6 miles south-south-east 

 of Old Hill. 



The Halesowen Sandstone group, which succeeds the Red Coal- 

 Measure Clays, consists of yellow and grey sandstones and a few 

 thin coals. Its junction with the Red Clays was not actually seen ; 

 but in an old marl-pit near Halesowen, situated at or near the 

 junction, fragments were found of a calcareous rock in which ento- 

 mostraca are visible. I learned that these fragments had been 

 thrown out from a well close by. 



The olive-coloured sandstones and shales, with the Spirorhis- 

 limestone of Hley Brook, which lie at the top of the Halesowen Series, 

 are separately grouped by Prof. Lap worth. ^ They are succeeded by 

 red sandstones and marls identical with the Keele Series, and can 

 be examined in the streams flowing northward from the Clent 

 Hills. 



The North Staffordshire sequence of higher Coal-Measures is 

 thus again repeated in all essential characters round the southern 

 margin of the South Staffordshire Coalfield. So far as is yet known, 

 the limestone at the top of the Halesowen Group, which is to be 

 compared with tbe Newcastle-under-Lyme Series, is confined to 

 South Staffordshire. On the other hand, no entomostracan lime- 

 stones have yet been recorded from the Red Coal-Measure Clays. 

 In all other respects the North Staffordshire and South Staffordshire 

 sequences are identical. 



The South Staffordshire Coalfield is situated near the southern 

 margin of the basin ; we therefore find that, as the rim is approached, 

 the upper measures overlap all the other divisions, including the 

 Thick Coal Group, till near Rubery the Halesowen Sandstones rest 

 upon the Silurian and Cambrian rocks of the Lickey Hills. 



V. TsOTTIlfGHAMSHIEE. 



In an examination of the cores from Thurgarton, 10 miles north- 

 east of Nottingham, the North Staffordshire sequence was again 

 recognized. I am permitted to give the following abstract . 

 account : — 



Underlying the Marl Slate with Produdus horridus, and separated 

 from it by a band of breccia, 188 feet of red sandstone and 

 marls were pierced. The red marls contained the remains of plants, 

 which have been determined by Mr. Kidston as Neuropteris rarinervis, 

 Pecopieris Miltoni, Cordaites sp., and Splienophyllum sp. In colour, 

 texture, and composition, the sandstones and marls resemble the 



^ 'Sketch of the Geology of the Birmingham District' Proc. Geol. Assoc. I 

 vol. XV (1898) p. 366, ' 



J 



