458 the halesowen sandstone seeies. [oct. i913, 



Discussion. 



Dr. "Walcot Gibson welcomed the attention of local geologists to 

 an interesting tract of country made classical by the work of 

 Murchison, Ramsay, and Jukes. If a thin coal was taken as an 

 index of position in a sequence, it should either possess very 

 marked characters, or it should be associated with strata of a 

 pronounced type and readily recognizable from place to place. It 

 was difficult, if indeed not impossible, to state definitely the relation 

 of the Halesowen Sandstone Series to the Old-Hill red clays. The 

 unconformity of the Keele Beds to the underlying grey measures 

 needed stronger confirmation, since it was directly opposed to the 

 evidence in adjacent areas and to that obtained in mining. 



Dr. Arbee, in congratulating the Author on the results of his 

 study of this portion of the South Staffordshire Coalfield, drew 

 attention to the excellent preservation of the "Witley Dadoxylon 

 and the rarity of this fossil in the Coal Measures. He pointed out 

 that the absence of annual rings, a feature in which these stems 

 agree with almost all the known coniferous woods of the Permo- 

 Carboniferous of the Northern Hemisphere, indicated the existence 

 of a uniform, genial, but not necessarily tropical climate. The 

 Halesowen Sandstones were essentially a grey series intercalated 

 between two sets of red measures ; but whatever may have been 

 the conditions which gave rise to the red rocks, the fossil woods of 

 the Halesowen Sandstones indicate that the climatic conditions did 

 not at that stage differ markedly from those of the productive 

 Coal Measures. 



The Authok, in reply to the first speaker, gave examples of the 

 manner in which he had traced the outcrop of the Halesowen Coal 

 and Clays. The evidence for unconformity was that bright-red 

 marls of the Keele Series and Permian rested sometimes upon the 

 Illey Group, and at others upon successive members of the (lower) 

 Hasbury Group. The upper boundary of the Illey Group had not 

 been defined in his paper, the line shown on the existing Survey- 

 maps being for the present accepted. The Old-Hill Marls passed 

 conformably upwards into the Halesowen Series, a typical instance 

 being found on Mucklow Hill. In conclusion, he expressed his 

 thanks for the kind reception accorded to his paper. 



