BRINE-SPRINGS AND SALIFEROUS MARLS. QA9 
sudden fall. Again, south-west of the town, over Yew-Tree Hill, 
the fields subside so rapidly that a farmer informed me he could no 
longer cultivate his land at that part (a strip from 10 to 15 yards 
across). For 13 mile a subsidence appears in this direction, showing 
that brine is extracted from underneath this hill, or that a cavity 
exists here. Across the garden of the Venerable Archdeacon Lea, 
nearer to Droitwich, the same depression may be noted. Twenty 
feet from the surface, a well in his garden * has a crack across it 
into which a man can crawl; this is in the Keuper Marls; and a 
similar cavity may be seen in a well at Rashwood, on the other 
side of Droitwich. As a man can insert his body into this cavity, 
it cannot be less than 2-3 feet. 
The saliferous Red Marl is numbered A 2 in the Triassic series, as 
shown in the Geological Survey Report 7. In order to understand 
the position of these Keuper Marls of the Droitwich district it is 
necessary to examine slightly the succession of Trias and Permian 
strata from the ridges of the Lickey and Clent hills, which form the 
southern boundary, to the Dudley Coal-fields. The Lickey Hills are 
of Permian rocks, which, having a southerly dip, disappear beneath 
the New Red Sandstones (Lower Keuper, A 3) of the Trias series, in 
the direction of Bromsgrove. A fine section of this Lower Keuper 
Sandstone is exposed in the railway-cutting at Bromsgrove station. 
In these beds, I believe, the peculiar fossil fish Dipteronotus cyphus 
was discovered, and was described by Sir Philip Egerton £ as forming 
a new genus. The Lower Keuper Sandstones dip slightly to the 
south, and are bounded east and west by marked faults, the Upper 
Keuper Marls filling up a trough, Droitwich being at about the lowest 
part. The total fall from the higher Lickey Hills, through Broms- 
grove and Stoke, is not less than 800 feet, a point of some import- 
ance in connexion with the brine-springs of Droitwich. A small 
stream, the Salwarpe, rising in the Lickey Hills, passes through the 
valley.. There is also a branch canal through Droitwich from the 
Worcester and Birmingham Canal, running almost parallel with the 
railway. The gradient of the Midland line from Droitwich to the 
top of the Lickey incline cannot be less than 1 in 70, the section 
from Bromsgrove station to the Lickey being one of the steepest 
inclines on any line of railway in England. 
From Stoke worksto Droitwich there are twelve canal-locks, each 
having a fall of about 6 feet, the distance being 44 miles. These 
details afford us some means of estimating the difference in level 
from the Lickey to Bromsgrove, to the Stoke works, and on to 
Droitwich. 
For over a thousand years salt has been extracted from the 
marls of this locality. Salt-furnaces are mentioned in ancient 
records from a.p. 816 ||. It is certain, however, that the salt supply 
* The Arcndeacon kindly offered me a seat in the bucket to inspect this crack 
or cavity. 
+ Hull, Geol. Survey Reports, vol. viii. Trias and Permian Rocks, p. 10. 
+ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. x. p. 369. 
|| Nash, Hist. Worcester, vol. i., Section on Droitwich. 
