434 MK. II. KAY ON THE HALESOWEN SANDSTONE [Oct. I913,. 



paper. I would also return my thanks to Mr. W. H. Foxall, the 

 Hon. Secretary of the Birmingham Natural History & Philosophical 

 Society, for photographs and for assistance in the field; and to 

 Mr. Jew, the Manager of Witley Colliery, for the facilities and 

 personal help which he has afforded me. Several other persons 

 have supplied me with useful information, and my thanks are due 

 to them likewise. 



II. Historical jN'otes. 



Murchison * was the first to describe the strata of the Clent and 

 Halesowen district in detail, and, although his classification is now 

 obsolete, his description remains the classic account. He notes 

 especially the conformable passage of the lower strata downwards 

 into true Coal Measures, but includes all the rocks from the con- 

 glomerates of the Old-Hill Marls upwards in the ' Lower ISfew 

 lied Sandstone.' 



Jukes 2 established the ' Red Coal-Measure Clays ' and the 

 Halesowen Sandstones as Upper Coal Measures, but was unable 

 to complete in person his investigations in the Upper Eed strata. 

 The work which he left unfinished was completed by llamsay 3 and 

 Hull, 4 who classified the whole of the upper red rocks as Permian 

 of the Salopian type. 



Prof. Lapworth 5 noted the presence of a series of rocks superior 

 to the Halesowen Sandstones, but inferior to the Permian. These 

 he separated as a distinct group, which he termed 'The Spirorbis- 

 Limestone Group' from the occurrence of a thin band of that 

 limestone near Illey Mill. 



Mr. W. Wickham King ° has re-examined the red rocks of the 

 district bed by bed, comparing them with the sequence found at 

 Enville, and has separated them into Upper, Middle, and Lower 

 Permian. 



Mr. T. C. Cantrill 7 recorded the occurrence of Spirorbis-~L\m<i- 

 stone bands among the so-called ' Permian,' on the line of the 

 Birmingham (Elan Valley) aqueduct ; and Dr. Walcot Gibson s 

 has claimed the whole of the so-called 'Permian' as Keele Beds 

 of Upper Carboniferous age. There are signs, however, of au 

 approaching compromise between these divergent views. 



1 ' The Silurian System ' 1839, pp. 54-57 & 463-469. 



2 'The South Staffordshire Coalfield' Mera. Geol. Surv. [Rec. School of 

 Mines] 1st ed. (1853) pp. 165-66 ; 2nd ed. (1859) pp. 3-9, 28-31, 155, & 185. 



^ Ibid. p. 185. 



4 ' The Triassic & Permian Rocks of the Midland Counties of England ' 

 Mem. Geol. Surv. 1869, pp. 16-18. 



5 'Sketch of the Geology of the Birmingham District' Proc. Geol. Assoc. 

 vol. xv (1898) pp. 366-68. 



e ' The Permian Conglomerates of the Lower Severn Basin ' Q,. J. G. S. vol. lv 

 (1899) pp. 97-128. 



7 'Summary of Progress of the Geological Survey for 1901 ' Mem. Geol. 

 Surv. 1902, pp. 63-64. 



* 'On the Character of the Upper Coal-Measures of North Staffordshire, 

 Denbighshire, &c.' Q. J. G. S. vol. lvii (1901) pp. 261-62. 



