COLLIERIES NEAR SHREWSBURY. 



91 



the shaft sections vary considerably in different parts of this tract, the following may be taken as 

 one of the fullest exhibitions of the measures sunk through at Wellbatch. 



Yards, ft. in. 



Portions of f Reddish clay 3 0 0 



Lower -I Sandstone of dull brownish red colour > 3 0 0 



New Red. [ Red and green shale with fragments of plants 20 0 0 



Top rock (grey sandstone) 3 0 0 



Curdled poundstone (a mixture of sand, clay, containing plants) 5 0 0 



Kind clod (shale) 4 0 0 



Coal 0 0 9 



Poundstone 10 0 



Kind clod 5 0 0 



Coal 0 0 1 



Curdled poundstone 10 0 



Pour-yard rock, a greenish-white hard sandstone 4 0 0 



Light-coloured poundstone 1 0 0 



Clod 4 0 0 



Coal 0 0 1 



Poundstone 10 0 



Clod 7 0 0 



Coal, the uppermost seam of the other sections 0 1 8 



Total 62 2 7 



In this spot the limestone is no longer worked, but it has been reached beneath the 

 last-mentioned bed of coal, which is therefore proved to be the uppermost of the three 

 seams before mentioned. In sinking to the limestone, the shafts passed through a 

 course of small concretions of calcareous clay iron stone, called " Rattlers," in which I 

 observed nests and coatings of mineral pitch and veins of white calcareous spar. This 

 may represent one of the thin Manchester limestones. There being no natural denu- 

 dations in this district it is only from an occasional trial shaft, like this, that I have 

 had any opportunity of judging of the precise structure of the beds passed through, and 

 it is therefore probable that in the section at Pontesbury (p. 83.) and in other parts of 

 this coal-field, the overlying strata may contain other thin courses of impure concre- 

 tionary limestone which have escaped the notice of the miners, and if so the analogy 

 between the Shropshire and Lancashire beds may be still more complete, even to agree- 

 ment in mineral characters. Neither of the lower coals have ever been proved at Ascot, 

 the Moat, or at Wellbatch, though the limestone has been extracted to some extent at 

 Nobold. This portion of the field is indeed exceedingly dislocated, it being difficult 

 to find a spot exceeding a few yards in width, in which the strata are not full of faults. 

 This is specially observable on the sides and slopes of Lyth Hill, the promontory of 

 purple greywacke or Cambrian rock which has been alluded to, and which, as we shall 

 show, is penetrated in many points by trap rocks. Between Lythwood and the brook 

 at Wellbatch, a distance not exceeding half a mile, there are four principal upcasts 

 upon the dip of the strata, the greatest of which is a rise of forty, the least of about 

 eight yards. It is to be remarked, that, here the beds are inclined to the north-west, 



