34 Murchisoris Silurian System. 



those of the Quarry Hill, south of Hales-Owen, where 

 thick bedded, red, gritty sandstones, both soft and hard, 

 are extracted for troughs, slabs, and building purposes, and 

 contain irregular thin seams, filled with minute fragments 

 of coal; whilst lower beds rising from beneath, pass into 

 layers of hard grey grit, in parts calcareous, their surfaces 

 being covered with fragments of coal and impressions of 

 stems of plants. From these beds there is a gradual passage 

 into the coal tract of the neighbourhood of Hales-Owen. 

 At Coleman's Hill and Hodge Hill, in the same district, there 

 are other sections, the strata in which, though differing 

 somewhat in mineral characters, belong to this lower division 

 of the New Red System ; and these also exhibit passages 

 into the coal measures. At Coleman's Hill, the upper beds 

 consist of yellowish, soft, gritty sandstone, containing some 

 small, calcareous fragments, a few pebbles of quartz, blotches 

 of red shale, and fragments of sandstone with impressions of 

 stems of plants ! This sandstone graduates into thick 

 bedded calcareous grit, spotted with bluish grey, black, and 

 yellow colours, and partially burnt for lime. The spotted 

 appearance is due to fragments of coaly matter, mixed with 

 imperfect concretions of crystallized carbonate of lime, and 

 blotches of ochreous decomposing sandy matter. The sand- 

 stones of this age occupy a distinct ridge from Hodge Hill 

 by the Two Gates, to near Hales-Owen. They are for the 

 most part of a yellow colour, are very cellular, and are not 

 unlike portions of this part of the system in the county of 

 Durham, which Professor Sedgwick has identified with the 

 Rothe-todte-liegende. I allude particularly to the soft, white, 

 yellow, and red sandstones on the banks of the Wear, at 

 Clack's Heugh, &c, near Sunderland. On the sides of the 

 gullies poor and thin seams of coal are exposed ; and one 

 of them occurring in grey calcareous breccia, similar to that 

 of Coleman's Hill, is made up of fragments of coal, sandstone, 

 schist, and limestone, in a calcareous cement. In the bed of 

 a brook under Wassail Grove, I observed a seam of this coal 



