32 



SAL1FER0US MARLS. 



These sinkings through a portion of the saliferous marls at Stoke Prior in Worcester- 

 shire 1 afford us some means of judging of the maximum thickness of this upper member 

 of the New Red System, which we shall not exaggerate if we compute it at upwards of 

 six hundred feet. 



By reference to the map it will be seen that these salt mines at Stoke Prior are little 

 more than two miles distant from the edge of the Lias at Forest Hill, near Hanbury ; 

 and as the whole body of these marls is overlaid by that formation, the section at this spot 

 is one of the most convincing proofs in England of the exact position of the member of 

 the New Red System, which in England is the matrix of rock salt. The perfectly analo- 

 gous position of the Cheshire salt, has recently been determined by the discovery of the 

 basin of Lias near Whitchurch and Nantwich. (See Plate 29. figs. 2 and 3, and wood- 

 cut 4. p. 25.) Numberless sections in Worcestershire, Staffordshire, or Shropshire, prove 

 that neither rock salt nor salt springs occur in the middle or lower members of the New 

 Red Sandstone • and hence the term " Saliferous " as applied to the whole system appears 

 objectionable, since the marls in which the salt lies, constitute only the upper portion of 

 the mass we are now considering under the general head of " the New Red System." 

 For though in certain parts of Germany, salt appears to pervade the underlying "Bunter 

 Sandstein," as we learn from the excellent monograph of Alberti 2 , we also know that 

 in other tracts of central Europe it abounds in tertiary strata (Wielitzka in Poland). 

 At Cardona, in Spain, it is found in rocks of the age of our green sand ; in the Austrian 

 Alps it has been shown by Professor Sedgwick and myself to occur in limestone of the 

 oolitic system 3 ; whilst in many countries, including England, saline springs occasionally 

 burst out from the carboniferous and older systems of rock. 



I have never detected any traces of organic remains in this upper formation of the 

 New Red System in England, though in Germany I have observed them in several lo- 

 calities, in the alternating masses of marl and sandstone which there constitute the 

 Keuper. (See note, p. 30.) In a memoir communicated to the Geological Society while 

 these pages are going through the press, Dr. Buckland has described the sandstone of 

 Warwick, Pyle in Glamorganshire, Sutton Mallet near Bridgewater, and several localities 

 near Taunton, as a part of the Keuper formation ; resting his conclusions on the 

 lithological character of the stone, and the discovery of an unknown species of Saurian, 



1 Owing to the undulating nature of the country, the natural sections of red and green marl near Droitwich 

 are clearly exposed ; but at Stoke Prior the surface is level, and has been extensively denuded and covered by 

 gravel ; it is therefore by shaft sections only that we there ascertain the succession of the strata. I recently 

 visited this spot to examine the sides of a new shaft, and from the appearance of the spotted marls and gypseous 

 beds which were exposed, I have no doubt that the section given in the woodcut, p. 31, may be depended upon. 



2 Monographic des bunten Sandsteins, Muschelkalks und Keuper. Stuttgard, 1834. This work is full of 

 merit and accurate research, though I cannot say that the new wordTWas of the author, appears to me a happy 

 selection in reference to these three formations ; nor can we apply it in England, seeing that one of them, the 

 Muschelkalk, is wanting. 



3 Geol. Trans., vol. iii. p. 30 ; Proceedings Geol. Soc, vol. i. p. 227 ; and Phil. Mag., vol. viii. pp. 64 and 

 81. plate 2. 



