54 



LOWER NEW RED SANDSTONE. 



trap having been derived, it is presumed, from Stagbury Hill. A similar rock is found 

 at Warshill on the left bank of the Severn, also rising up on the edge of the Lower New 

 Red where it is bounded by the Old Red Sandstone, the conglomerate being interposed 

 between the intrusive rock and the soft sandstone of Kidderminster 1 . The same conglo- 

 merates, subordinate to, and winding through masses of thick-bedded sandstone, are in- 

 structively displayed at Winterdine, near Bewdley ; and contain fragments of coal-measure 

 grits and concretionary trap, both of which rocks being in situ adjacent to the conglomerate 

 are of angular forms, whilst the quartz and pebbles of older rocks, which have been trans- 

 ported from greater distances, are rounded. These strata are unconformable to the ad- 

 joining sandstone and grits of the coal measures, and pass beneath the red sandstone, 

 which forms the cliffs on the left bank of the Severn, and ranges to the town of Kidder- 

 minster. (PL 30. fig. 2.) 



I have thus attempted to show, that to the south of Kidderminster and Bewdley the 

 lower limit of the New Red System is usually marked by certain conglomerates re- 

 sembling those of Devonshire, which I agree with Professor Sedgwick'' in considering 

 as distinct from the Lower New Red Sandstone or Rothe-todte-liegende. We may, 

 therefore, proceed to the consideration of the structure of these tracts where natural 

 sections exposing a full development of the lower members of the system, exhibit, be- 

 sides the calcareous and other conglomerates before described, the Lower New Red 

 Sandstone as a great and distinct subjacent formation of sandstone, marl, and shale, 

 with subordinate courses of impure concretionary limestone, the whole passing down 

 gradually into the carboniferous system. 



4. Lower New Red Sandstone. — Foreign Synonyms: Rothe-todte-liegende (Ger.), Gres 



des Vosges — couches inferieures ? (Fr.) 



When fully developed, as in the tracts of Worcestershire, Staffordshire and Shropshire 

 where I shall now describe it, this formation differs essentially in lithological structure 

 from any rocks we have previously considered, (e. of wood-cut 5, p. 28.) As a mass it may 

 be said to consist of sandstones and grits, chiefly of a red colour, sometimes argillaceous, 

 very frequently calcareous, associated with deep brown red shales and marls, occasionally 

 spotted green. Grains of whitish, decomposed felspar, are frequent in a matrix of dull 



1 The trap rocks of Stagbury and Warshill are similar to those of Abberley and the Clent Hills. (See 

 subsequent account of similar rocks in the coal-field of the forest of Wyre, chap. 9.) 



2 See Professor Sedgwick's view of the Red Conglomerates of Devonshire, Geol. Trans, vol. iv. p. 383 et 

 seq. Since that memoir was printed, Professor Sedgwick and myself have visited Devonshire, and our opinions 

 are expressed in the concluding part of this chapter. 



