FOREST OF WYRE AND TITTERSTONE CLEE HILL COAL FIELDS. 1069 



The following lithological features may be emphasised : — 



The argillaceous strata are chiefly clays, not shales, though true shales also occur. 



Many of the clays are red, purple, or green, the rest being light-grey. Probably 

 the light-grey exceed the red clays, but the latter are frequent throughout. 



Many, probably most, of the sandstones, from the Gutter Coal to the highest beds 

 seen, are espleys, as they contain much green debris, some of it coarse, the whole in 

 a friable matrix. It is unknown, however, whether the green fragments have been 

 derived from volcanic rocks ; such an origin has been proved in the case of the 

 espleys of the Etruria Marls of Staffordshire. 



The basal sandstones up to the Gutter Coal resemble those of the underlying 

 Cornbrook Sandstone, the so-called Millstone Grit, in being light-grey and devoid of 

 green debris ; some are hard, thick-bedded, and pebbly. It might, in fact, be thought 

 that they belong to the Cornbrook Sandstone, were it not that in one place they rest 

 with evident unconformity on that group, and at several places have yielded Upper 

 Carboniferous plants such as Neuropteris gigantea Sternb. sp. 



The few plants from the basal sandstones are species common to both the West- 

 phalian and the Lanarkian Series, and do not afford sufficient evidence for deciding 

 whether No. 1 of the section should be referred to the Westphalian or to the 

 Lanarkian. It appears to Dr Kidston that it might probably represent the Lanarkian 

 Series, but the palseontological evidence is not sufficient to determine this question. 



The coals up to the level of the Great Coal at least are " sweet," i.e. non- 

 sulphurous. 



The ironstones, like the coals, occur throughout groups 1 to 11, but again, like 

 the coals, have been found workable at a few levels only. The great majority are 

 nodular masses, up to several feet in diameter, of grey clay-ironstone. A dark platy 

 band, locally called black-band, which occurs in the roof of the Gutter Coal, is of 

 interest in being crowded with the periostraca of lamellibranchs. 



Marine bands are rare, the series being on the whole of continental origin ; but 

 it is important to note that one well-defined marine band lies as high as the highest 

 40 feet of the group 11. The bands differ from those in most coal fields in consisting 

 of light-grey clay with light-grey limestone nodules, and in yielding no cephalopods. 

 Some of the nodules are crowded with Productus. 



Fauna. — So far as known, of no zonal value. 



The Age of the Titterstone Clee Hill Coal Measures. — As is shown by Dr Kidston 

 on another page, conclusive evidence on this question is afforded by the flora, which, 

 from the Gutter Coal, up to the Great Coal at least, shows the beds undoubtedly to 

 belong to the Westphalian Series (Middle Coal Measures). 



Were it not for the palseontological evidence, however, there would be some 

 doubt as to their age. The stratigraphical succession shows merely that their period 

 of deposition was separated from that of the Cornbrook Sandstone by a break suffi- 

 ciently prolonged to allow the older formation to be folded somewhat and partly 



