218 SECTION OF THE CARADOC SANDSTONE (BANKS OF THE ONNY). 



organic remains, in both of which they are very distinct from the overlying deposit of 

 Wenlock. 



ii. Slightly micaceous, very fine-grained, flaglike sandstone, of gosling green, and dingy olive green colours, in beds from 

 one to six inches thick. It is very finely laminated, and so void of argillaceous matter, that even way-boards can scarcely 

 be detected. These beds include calcareous courses of bluish colours, as seen in a low cliff on the right bank of the river, 

 and in the deep lanes at and above the village of Cheney Longville. In the lower part, the strata become rather thicker, 

 calcareous and shelly matter appearing at intervals, with rarely a thin partition of clay. 



One of the most marked features of the beds of flag and tilestone is, that on frac- 

 turing the rock, the fossils frequently stand out in the form of neat casts, the surfaces 

 covered with the brown and yellow hydrate of iron, thus presenting themselves in marked 

 relief to the dingy green or red colours of the matrix. 



The prevailing fossils are the Avicula orbicularis, PI. 15. f. 2. ; Orthis Actonia, PI. 20. 

 f. 16. ; 0. grandis, PL 20. f. 12 and 13. ; with an occasional Trilobite, such as Trinucleus 

 Caractaci, T. fimbriatus, &c. 



This group of naglike strata at Cheney Longville and on the banks of the Onny, 

 cannot be estimated at less than three or four hundred feet in thickness (h of wood-cut) . 

 They dip to the south-east at about 25°, and may be observed on the bank of the stream 

 as well as on the sides of the roads which traverse the strata, particularly in ascending 

 from Cheney Longville to the common, where they have been long and largely quarried 

 as tilestones. Similar beds may be traced, in the same position, on the south-eastern 

 face of the hill of Woolston, at Acton Scott, at Soudley near Cardington, &c. On the 

 whole the aspect of these beds is peculiar, and if the fossils were excluded, some of 

 them might almost be mistaken for sandy clay stones of trappean origin : and it will 

 be hereafter shown that beds of this nature in the immediate flanks of Caer Caradoc, 

 pass into what I have termed "Volcanic Grits." (see p. 229.) 



in. Thick-bedded, finely grained, siliceous sandstones, sometimes of reddish colours, but for the most part of a dingy olive 

 green, and striped in the direction of the laminae with bands of dark red or purple. Some of the beds are very thick and fit 

 for the largest troughs ; others are wrought into flags six inches thick. This stone has a conchoidal fracture, and is usually 

 fissured by a number of vertical and oblique joints of irregular forms, having the interstices filled with clay, generally of a 

 red colour, the same matter forming the way-boards. It contains some irregular courses of very impure limestone, made 

 up of shells, chiefly the Orthis testudinaria Dalm., PI. 20. fig. 9., and Productus sericeus, PL 19. fig. 1. 



In the south-western prolongation of this system, similar beds are cut through by the 

 old road from Ludlow to Bishop's Castle, called the Long Lane, where they are well 

 exposed in deep quarries, and where, as at Soudley, near Hope Bowdler, they are 

 worked for troughs, tombstones and building purposes, presenting the same peculiari- 

 ties of structure, fossils, fissures, colour, &c, which have been before remarked. The 

 lower beds at the Long Lane quarry are considerably inclined and disturbed in the 

 manner represented in this wood-cut. 



a 



