1070 DR R. KIDSTON, MR T. C. CANTRILL, AND MR E. E. L. DIXON. 



denuded before the newer one was laid down. And the lithological evidence as to age 

 is conflicting, certain features of the Coal Measures pointing to a Middle Coal Measure 

 horizon, whereas others suggest a higher level — that of the Etruria Marls. The dis- 

 cordance will be apparent from the following summary of the growth of our knowledge. 



A Middle Coal Measure age has long been urged by Mr Daniel Jones,* who 

 bases his argument on the resemblance of the Titterstone Clee Measures to the Sweet 

 Coal Series of the adjoining Forest of Wyre Coalfield. It may be admitted at once 

 that the resemblance in all respects is so close as to demonstrate conclusively that 

 the Sweet Coal series of the two coal fields are of the same age, and, in fact, must 

 have been deposited in one basin. But the Sweet Coal Series of the Forest of Wyre 

 is isolated from coal fields of known Middle Coal Measure age with which Mr Jones 

 correlates it, and also it differs from the beds in those coal fields in various respects. 

 Consequently, to one who does not know the Forest of Wyre and neighbouring coal 

 fields so well as Mr Jones, the correlation of these coal fields, and therefore the age 

 of the Titterstone Clee Coal Measures, does not appear to have been conclusively 

 established. 



My own work on the lithological sequence of the Titterstone Clee and Forest of 

 Wyre Coalfields, whilst confirming their correlation with one another, partly opposes, 

 partly supports Mr Jones's correlation of them with beds elsewhere. As will be 

 seen from the section on p. 1068, the Titterstone Clee Measures are divisible into (a) 

 a lower clay-series (groups 1-1 1) and (b) an upper sandstone-series (group 12), the 

 latter of unknown thickness, as only the lowest 100 feet or so are preserved. 

 Similarly, the Forest of Wyre measures, as developed near Billingsley and Baveney 

 Wood, consist of a lower clay-series and an upper sandstone or sandstone-and-clay 

 series ; the lower series (a) in the two coal fields are so nearly identical as evidently 

 to have been deposited contemporaneously. Here it need only be mentioned that 

 in each coal field the same parts of the series contain "sweet" coals, and the whole 

 includes red clays and espleys. The upper series (b) also consists of similar rocks in 

 the two coal fields, though in the Forest of Wyre it attains a great thickness, con- 

 tinuing up to the so-called " Permian." As the sandstones immediately beneath the 

 "Permian" in parts at least of the Forest of Wyre belong to the Newcastle Group 

 or Halesowen Sandstone, t it has been suggested | that the whole series of sandstones 

 (6), both in that coal field and in Titterstone Clee, may belong to the Newcastle 

 Group, and that the underlying clay series (a) may be a facies of the Etruria Marls, 

 which normally consist wholly of red clays and espleys. 



This view of the clay-series did not accord with the presence in that series of 

 workable coals and marine bands, and, as we have seen, it is now known to be 

 definitely refuted by the flora, which is Westphalian, not Staffordian. 



* In Geol. Mag. for 1871, p. 363, and in subsequent papers. 



t T. C. Cantrill, "A Contribution, etc., ; ' 1895, p. 19; Coll. Guard., vol. lxxi, 1896, p. 351 ; Dr W. Gibson 

 Trans. Inst. Mining Eng., vol. xlv, 1912-13, p. 30. 



X E. E. L. Dixon, Hep. Brit. Assoc. (Sheffield, 1910), 1911, p. 611. 



