24 



LIAS IN SHROPSHIRE AND CHESHIRE, 



and Wolliston Commons, &c. It is partially exposed between the escarpment of marl- 

 stone at Prees, and the talus of Red Marl and New Eed Sandstone of the Hawkstone 

 Hills : there are also several outcrops of the strata between Marchamly on the south, and 

 the rising grounds of Audlem and Burley Dam on the north. The relations of the 

 Lower Lias to the New Red Sandstone are best seen near the eastern extremity of the 

 Hawkstone ridge ; and the water forming the series of ponds to the north of Hawk- 

 stone, is probably borne up by the marls of the New Red System. 



Cloverly Hall, the seat of Mr. Dod, may be taken as a centre around which the lias 

 shale is of the greatest thickness. On Wolliston Common, for example, in one of the 

 attempts to find coal, after sinking two hundred and forty feet, the strata were bored to 

 the further depth of one hundred and fifty, making a total of about four hundred feet. 

 A little black lignite or jet was found in one instance, but nothing to justify the most 

 remote probability of the formation containing coal. 



At the mouth of one of the trial pits I collected many fossils, and with the assistance 

 of Mr. Dod and the Rev. T. Egerton, the following list has been completed : 



Ammonites Bucklandi. M. C. t. 130. 



communis. M. C. t. 107. 



— Conybeari. M. C. t. 131. 



planicosta. M. C. t. 406. f. 5 & 7. 



planorhis. M. C. t. 448. 



resembling planicosta (small). 



— New species (large and spinose). 



A beautiful small species re- 

 sembling one published in Zieten's Ammo- 

 nites of the Wirtemberg Lias, &c. 



Astarte elegans. M. C. t. 137. f- 3. 



Small variety. 



Behmnites suhclavatus. Voltz sur les Belem- 

 niteSj pi. 1. fig. 11. p. 38. 



portions of another species. 



Cidaris. This is the first example I have met 

 with in the Lias of any part of the body of 

 Echinodermata, although many spines be- 

 longing to this family have been found in 

 the Lias of Gloucestershire, and at Lyme 

 Regis. 



Gryphcea incurva. (See wood- cut, p. 19. f. 2.) 



■ Maccullochii. M. C. pi. 547. f. 1. 



Modiola minima. M. C. t. 210. f. 5 — 7. 

 Pecten. An unpublished species, occurring also 



in the Brora Lower Shale; see memoir 



Geol. Trans., vol. 2. p. 320. 

 Pentacrinites scalaris (Goldfuss). 

 Plagiostoma giganteum. M. C. t. 77. 



pectinoides. M. C. t. 114. f. 4. 



Pullastra. Unpublished ; also found at Brora. 



Geol. Trans., vol. 2. p. 320. 

 Rostellaria. 



Spirifer Walcotti? M. C. t. 377. f. 2. 



Teltina Unpublished, probably 2 species 



(see memoir on Brora ut supra). 



Turritella. Small unpublished species, pro- 

 bably same as at Banz, Germany. 



Unto IAsteri ? M. C. t. 154. f. 1, 3, & 4. 



Small portions of fishes or Crustacea ? 



This list of fossils satisfactorily establishes the precise age of the beds, for besides 

 containing the Ammonites Bucklandi, Conybeari, and planicosta, characteristic of the 

 Lower Lias, we have the Ammonites Planorhis and Modiola minima, both of which are 

 distinguishing fossils of the same beds in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire. It was 

 gratifying to find in this detached basin of North Salop, shells identical with certain 



