The Permian Rocks of the Leicestershire Coal-field. 75 



boniferous and Trias have been mapped as Permian, true represen- 

 tatives of the Permian do exist in the district to a considerable 

 extent. The Bunter conglomerates rest for the most part upon 

 the truncated edges of Carboniferous strata ; but intercalated 

 between them and the Carboniferous, at various points, are thin 

 beds of purple marly breccias and sandstones seldom exceeding 

 from 30 to 40 ft., but differing in lithological character from the 

 overlying and underlying rocks. The brecciated series rests with 

 striking unconformity upon the Carboniferous. Moreover, the 

 Boothorpe fault, which throws the Coal-measures 1000 ft., affects 

 the overlying brecciated series to an extent of not more than from 

 20 to 30 ft. The unconformity between the brecciated series and 

 the Bunter is less obvious. Sections establishing the double un- 

 conformity were described in considerable detail. Attention was 

 also called to other localities within the Coal-field where Permian 

 rocks exist, the author having in many cases mapped their boun- 

 daries. 



He further called attention to certain beds which have been 

 erroneously classed as Permian by the Survey. The first of these 

 is a patch at Knowle Hills. Making e.itensive use of the hand-borer, 

 he found that the greater part of the so-called Permian consists of 

 a wedge-shaped piece of Lower Keuper let down by a trough 

 fault. The so-called Moira grits belong to and are conformable 

 with the ordinary Coal-measures of the district. 



The lithological characters of the Leicestershire Permians are suf- 

 ficient to differentiate them from the Trias and Carboniferous, 

 They consist of red and variegated marls, bands of breccia, and beds 

 of fine-grained yellowish sandstone ; the breccia fragments are of 

 great variety and little waterworn. These are imbedded in a bluish- 

 grey matrix, hard or soft, which consists of insoluble matter united 

 by the carbonates of lime and magnesia with some hydrated ferrous 

 oxide, which on exposure becomes oxidized. 



The breccias have a tendency to die out northwards. The most 

 abundant materials are quartzo-felspathic grits with associated grey 

 flinty slates (Older Palaeozoic), with in addition vein-quartz, volcanic 

 ash, and igneous rocks. The Carboniferous rocks afford argillaceous 

 limestone. Mountain Limestone, grits, and haematite. At Boothorpe 

 nearly 90 per cent, is made up of the old Palaeozoic material, whilst 

 at Newhall Park 28-8 per cent, consists of Carboniferous grits and 

 haematite. The quartzite fragments resemble those of the lower 

 part of the Hartshill series, but the existence of " strain shadows " 

 indicates a difference subsequently explained. A very few fragments 

 may be referred to the Charnwood rocks. 



The bulk of the material has a southern origin, and the irregu- 

 larity of the fragments proves that they cannot have come from a 

 distance. Evidence is given of the probable existence of a ridge of 

 older Palaeozoics, from which the Carboniferous rocks had been 

 stripped, beneath the Trias of Bosworth. (There is an actual out- 

 crop of Stockingford shales at Elmesthorpe.) The direction of this 

 line is parallel with the Nuneaton-Hartshill and Charnwood axes of 



