38 



NEW RED SANDSTONE IN SHROPSHIRE. 



distant, when further excavations along the northern slopes of the Clive and Hawkstone 

 Hills, may lead to the discovery of the zoological evidences required 1 . 



Near Marchamley, the eastern end of the Hawkstone Hills, a natural section is seen 

 in the following descending order, proceeding from north to south. 



1. Beds of flaglike, deep red, sandy marlstone, the uppermost passing under red and green 



saliferous marls, with some laminae of greenish grey marl. 



2. Thick-bedded dark red sandstone, weathering to a small cavernous or honeycomb surface, and 



resting on red and green marl. The strata 1. and 2. may perhaps be classed with the 

 Keuper, or rather as the beds of passage from that formation to the great mass of New Red 

 Sandstone. The calcareous course, however, is not so distinctly exhibited as at Broughton. 



3. Hard, red sandstone, slightly calcareous and in parts cellular. On their extension to the west, 



these bands become of a yellowish grey colour, including veins of chalcedony, with nests of 

 crystallized carbonate of lime, blue carbonate of copper, and black oxide of manganese dis- 

 seminated both in particles and in small veins. 



4. Thick masses of whitish soft sandstone without distinct lines of bedding. 



5. Red sandstone appearing below the white sandstone. 



These beds form a part of the Hawkstone Ridge and terrace so justly admired, hut 

 other parts of the same escarpment present different characters, and the alternations 

 above described, give way to large continuous masses of whitish yellow, thick-bedded, 

 earthy sandstone, forming picturesque cliffs of rounded forms, from eighty to one 

 hundred feet high. This sandstone is composed of semi-transparent grains of quartz, 

 very minute, apparently rounded, with a small proportion of grey cement, chiefly argil- 

 laceous, and it occasionally contains " concretions about the size of a pea, of lamellar, 

 white and flesh-coloured sulphate of barytes 2 ." It presents few clear lines of deposit, 

 and is marked by many transverse fissures and seams of false bedding, features charac- 

 teristic of all the sandy rocks of this system. The whole of the sandstone strata in the 

 Hawkstone range, including the Clive and Harmour Hills, dip at a small angle to the 

 north-north-west, partially surmounted, as before stated, by calcareous courses, which 

 are supposed to represent the Muschelkalk, and passing beneath the saliferous marls 

 which support the Lias. (P1.2(J. fig. £.) In this country, therefore, having a clear line 

 of demarcation for the top of the system, we know that the Hawkstone rocks constitute 

 an integral portion of the great central mass of New Red Sandstone. The surface of 

 the sandstone near the Hermitage, is occasionally of a bright green colour, which is 

 sometimes due to green carbonate of copper, disseminated through the rock, as seen on 

 the sides of the park ride leading to Marchamley, though some of the specimens owe 



1 The most characteristic fossils of the Muschelkalk are Lima striata and L. lineata, Schlotheim ; Pecten lavi- 

 gatus and P. discites, Schloth. ; Avicula socialis and A. Bronnii (Mytilus socialis, fyc, of Schlotheim) ; with 

 the well-known and beautiful Lily encrinite, Encrinites liliiformis, and Ammonites nodosus. Some of the fos- 

 sils of the Muschelkalk pass up into lower beds of the Keuper. (See note p. 30.) 



* Aikin, MSS. 



