534 ME. T. C. CANTBILE ON SPIRORBIS-LIHESTONE, ETC., [Aug. 1895, 



Comparing this section with that of the Clent district (p. 530), 

 we may say that, without attempting to definitely correlate the 

 several calcareous conglomerates in the respective districts, we have 

 an essentially similar series in both localities, except that the 

 Upper Sandstones and Marls of the Enville district are either 

 absent or concealed by the Middle Bunter in the Clent district. 

 Then, again, the Lower Sandstones and Marls are apparently not 

 so well developed in South Staffordshire. 



The calcareous conglomerates and trappoid breccia are alike in 

 both districts. Many of the red sandstones, cornstones, and marls 

 passed through at Sandwell and Hamstead are identical in appear- 

 ance with beds in the lower part of the red series of Wyre Forest. 



Whatever reasons there may be, then, for regarding these ' Per- 

 mian ' rocks as of Upper Coal Measure age in South Staffordshire 

 will probably apply equally to the similar series of Wyre Forest ; 

 and one may a priori expect that the latter, at least up to the base 

 of the breccia, will prove to be of Upper Coal Measure age. 



(1) The Spiro?'bis-\imestone. 



The following fresh evidence on the subject greatly strengthens 

 these expectations. 



During the month of June 1894, whilst examining the ' Permian ' 

 lower boundary in the neighbourhood of Upper Arley — a village on 

 the eastern bank of the Severn, and 3 miles N.N.W. of Bewdley, 

 in Worcestershire — and bearing in mind the fact that a Spirorbis- 

 limestone in South Staffordshire and Warwickshire occurs in and 

 close to the top of the Coal Measures, I thought it possible that a 

 similar band might occur in a like position in the Wyre Forest 

 district, although one band had already been discovered at various 

 points around the lower margin of the Coal Measures at a short 

 distance above the Old Red Sandstone. 1 



But an examination of the higher beds of the Coal Measures re- 

 vealed no such limestone. Yet large irregularly-shaped lumps of a 

 dark greyish-blue limestone frequently occurred in the beds of the 

 streams flowing from ' Permian ' on to Coal Measure ground, but 

 they occurred always on the 'Permian' side of the boundary, 

 and in association with cornstones, sandstones, shales, marls, and 

 clays of a typical ' Permian ' red, and in colour totally unlike the 

 underlying yellow and orange sandstones and shales of the ordinary 

 Coal Measures. 



The limestone always occurred as irregularly-shaped masses from 

 2 or 3 inches to as many feet in length, and lying in the bottom of 

 the stream-bed. It never appeared as a distinct bed in the banks 

 of the stream — a fact subsequently explained by finding the lime- 

 stone in situ interbedded between bands of marl — and hence this 



1 See D. Jones, Trans. Manchester Geol. Soc. vol. x. (1870) p. 37. 



