368 DH. W. HIND AND MR. J. A. HOWE ON THE [Allg. IQOIy 



Nortli Staffordshire and Derbyshire. 



The Carboniferous succession in North Staffordshire and^Derby- 

 shire is fairly constant over the whole district, and consists roughly 

 of: 



Millstone G-rit A series of grits and quartzites, separated by 



masses of shale with occasional marine 

 bands. 



Pbndleside Group A. series of dark shales with hard dark lime- 

 stones containing the typical fauna. 



Carboniferous Limestone ... A practically undifided mass the base of 



which is nowhere seen, said to be 3000 feet 

 thick. 



Local variations occur in the Grit Series ; some beds disappear 

 altogether as they pass southward and westward, and the Pendleside 

 Group too is subject to local variations in thickness. 



The tectonic structure of this area is due to a series of parallel 

 anticlinal and synclinal folds, very little interfered with, on the 

 whole, by faults which affect the various members of the series* 

 The axes of these folds range almost due north and south, the 

 orographic axis being much nearer the east than the west. 



Starting on the west with the escarpment of Congleton Edge, 

 where the greater part of the series is exposed, from the Carboni- 

 ferous Limestone to the Lower Coal-Measures, we find the synclinal 

 trough of the Biddulph Coalfield. This is succeeded by the anti- 

 cline in the shales and Farey's Grit on Biddulph Moor, best seen 

 at Gun Hill. Farther east is the syncline of the grit-basin of 

 Horton. This is succeeded by the syncline of the Eoaches and the 

 Goldsitch Coalfield, which is followed by the anticline of Morridge, 

 exposing the Pendleside Group, and 2 miles south of the section 

 exposing even the top of the limestone. Farther east again is the 

 small syncline formed by the outlier of Sheen, below which all the 

 beds rise in succession, exposing the great mass of limestone,^ 

 between Hartington and Matlock, as an anticline. Beyond Matlock 

 the upper beds recur in series to form the western limb of the 

 Derbyshire Coalfield. Transverse sections farther north and farther 

 south are much simpler, and show only two or three parallel folds. 



Careful measurements at Matlock, south of Youlgreave, between 

 Sheen Hill and the limestone-boundary north of Hartington and 

 at Congleton Edge, show that the measures between the limestone- 

 and Farcy's Grit cannot be more than from 500 to 1 000 feet at the 

 most. This fact is borne out by the section north of Doveholes, and 

 also by measurements in the neighbourhood of Eyam. 



The section half a mile north of Doveholes supplies the following 

 details. It occurs along the line of the tramway to Peak Forest^ 

 and is continued by the section in the London & ISTorth-western 

 Railway just north of the tunnel, the escarpments of the grits 

 forming features in the hill westward. The tramway- cutting 

 shows massive, well-bedded, crinoidal and shelly limestone dipping 

 west by north at 15° : — 



