Murchisoris Silurian System. 35 



three or four inches thick, overlaid by what may be termed 

 a carboniferous cornstone, somewhat resembling that of 

 Coleman's Hill, and containing small interspersed fragments 

 of bitumenized vegetable matter, rounded, and apparently 

 water-worn, like the pieces of drifted wood seen upon the 

 sea-coast. The calcareous bed passes upwards into thin 

 bedded, brownish yellow sandstone, weathering to a reddish 

 colour, in the fine natural sections seen as we descend." 



" I. Mr. W. Hamilton, then Secretary to the Geological 

 Society, accompanied me in one of my visits to the district 

 around Hales-Owen, and he can bear witness to the quantity 

 of impressions of stems, &c. of plants which we observed in 

 the strata of the Lower New Red Sandstone. Specimens of 

 these may be obtained in the Quarry Hill and Coleman's Hill. 

 From these hills of yellow sandstones, to the edge of the great 

 Dudley coal-field, whether from the Windmills and Two 

 Gates, or from Hodge Hill, we find the following succession — 



1st. Beds of incoherent soft yellow sandstone, with cal- 

 careous courses, and thin seams and fragments of coal. 



2nd. Argillaceous strata, generally red, and of consider- 

 able thickness. 



3rd. Sandstone, alternating with a peculiar trap-cuf. This 

 rock sometimes assumes spheroidal forms, and will be further 

 described in the chapter on Dudley. It contains quartz, peb- 

 bles, and fragments of coal plants, is often highly ferruginous, 

 and passes down into strata containing small concretions of 

 ironstone. 



4th. Calcareous shale with seams of coal, which have 

 been, and are still worked." 



"It appears, therefore, that between Hagley and Hales- 

 Owen, there are all the proofs of a Lower New Red Sandstone 

 distinctly underlying the masses described in the previous 

 pages, and passing down into carboniferous strata so gradu- 

 ally, that it is difficult to draw the line of separation, or define 

 it with any accuracy upon a map. As this Lower New Red 

 approaches the Clent Hills, it is inclined to the south, and is 



