LOWER NEW RED, SHROPSHIRE. 



61 



stones are not unusually three and a half feet thick, by ten or twelve in diameter 1 . 

 These grits are frequently calcareous, and are composed chiefly of grains of deep red 

 quartzose sand with white specks of decomposed felspar. Although, therefore, they 

 do not much resemble the ordinary strata of the New Red Sandstone, they are unlike 

 any beds in the Old Red System. And though it may be difficult, nay, in some cases 

 impracticable, to distinguish the calcareous concretions of the one system from the 

 cornstones and limestones of the other, we have a safe guide in the order of superpo- 

 sition ; and the absence of the fishes and organic remains of the Old Red Sandstone, 

 is negative evidence of some use in assisting the inquirer. 



In subsequent remarks upon the carboniferous deposits of these tracts, it will be 

 explained, how the coal measures which appear in patches in the bed and banks of the 

 Severn, have been brought to light from beneath this cover of the Lower New Red 

 Sandstone. This member of the system is further developed on both banks of the 

 Severn, north of Bridgenorth, or between that town and Madeley, leaving no doubt 

 of its age, since it is seen overlying and dipping away from a thin zone of coal at Tasley 

 and Coughley ; and where some of the harder courses also contain calcareous sandstones. 

 (PI. 29. figs. 11, 12 and 13.) 



A most instructive transverse section can also be made by passing from the high terrace of Apley 

 to the lower ridges, in which are situated the park and house of Mr. Whitmore. The change ob- 

 served in passing from the fine sandy and loamy soil of the upper and middle portion, to the cold 

 argillaceous surface of the lower division of the system, is quite as marked, as the contrast between 

 the agricultural surface of the New and Old Red Sandstones, where those systems are brought 

 together in Gloucestershire and parts of Worcestershire. (See Map.) So complete is the resem- 

 blance between this lower member of the New Red, and the Old Red Sandstone itself, that I confess 

 it was only the clear order of superposition which convinced me, that this zone of sandstone and 

 clay really formed part of the younger system. Near Apley Park lodge, quarries have been opened 

 in this rock to the depth of thirty feet, exposing a hard, greenish and deep red sandstone, in parts 

 calcareous, in others slightly concretionary and conglomerated, the whole subordinate to stiff, red, 

 argillaceous marl or shale. Here, as at Cantern Bank near Tasley, the beds lie conformably upon 

 the coal strata, a band of which appears below in the bed of the Severn, while the superior face of 

 the red rock dips beneath the overlying conglomerate of Apley Terrace. As Mr. J. Prestwich, to 

 whose labours in this coal-field I shall have occasion to allude hereafter, has discovered plants in 

 these Lower Red Sandstones ; the analogy to the strata of similar age near Hales Owen, Hagley, 

 Shrewsbury, and other places, is complete. 



On following this rock to Coal Port Bank, we there see it exhibited in deep vertical sections. 

 Thick- and thin-bedded, red, argillaceous sandstones ; yellowish and greenish grits, occasionally 

 calcareous, with wayboards of argillaceous marl, constitute the upper cliff, dipping to the east 10° 

 under an argillaceous cover, and resting upon thick-bedded red sandstone, having a slight tendency 



1 The stone was also formerly much extracted for the furnace hearths of blast-houses, but experience has 

 taught the iron masters, that many other sandstones are equally serviceable for that purpose. The coarser beds 

 contain small fragments and concretions of marl. They are also used as building-stones. 



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