VARIETIES OF CARADOC SANDSTONE (KENLEY, CHURCH PREEN, ETC.). 221 



quartz rock. The same phenomena occur on the flanks of the Wrekin and other places, 

 where trap rocks protrude through similar sandstones. (PL 29. f. 11.) In the undu- 

 lating and wooded hills of Acton Burnell and Cound, this Caradoc sandstone is re- 

 peated by reversed dips of the strata ; and also on the north-western side of the anti- 

 clinal line of the Caradoc, so that the observer will find white sandstone at Cound and 

 Stevens' Castle, and red sandstone and shelly beds in Acton Burnell, &c. On the 

 eastern slopes of the latter hills, some of these shelly beds, containing principally 

 Productus complanatus, PL 20. f. 6. ; Orthis vespertilio, PL 20. f. 11, &c. ; have been 

 quarried and polished for marble ornaments 1 . 



Besides the strata already mentioned, there are other rocks which constitute promi- 

 nent members of the formation for short distances only. Thus the villages of Kenley 

 and Church Preen, stand upon coarse grits, in parts almost quartzose conglomerates, 

 which for three or four miles, form one of the uppermost strata of the Caradoc sand- 

 stone ; for they rise at low angles from beneath the Wenlock shale 2 . This coarse 

 rock is used as a building- stone, and may be seen in the houses of the village of 

 Harley below Wenlock Edge, where those who identify rocks by mineral characters 

 would have some difficulty in distinguishing it from the millstone grit of the coal- 

 measures. At Kenley, the small white quartz pebbles of the rock are held together in 

 a strong ferruginous cement ; and the beds have an united thickness of twelve or four- 

 teen feet, becoming in some places a fine, hard, chocolate-coloured, coarse sandstone. 

 At Church Preen it is largely quarried, and is a ferruginous, gritty sandstone, in parts 

 a conglomerate, the dip being ten degrees to the south-east. To the south-west of 

 Church Preen, this stratum thins out, and is no longer visible. In the central and 

 lower beds of the series, exposed in the escarpment at Chat wall, there are thick- and 

 thin-bedded yellowish sandstone, calcareous flagstone, conglomerate grit, and purple 

 and green micaceous sandy shale. The conglomerate at this place is lithologically 

 distinct from that of Church Preen, and contains pebbles of quartz, in sizes varying from 

 peas to almonds ; and in some of the beds there is much disseminated green earth and 

 other disintegrated materials of trap rocks, giving a varied appearance to the strata. 

 These accumulations, it will be observed, are on the flanks of the trappsean chain of 

 the Caradoc. Similar conglomerate beds are laid open at Enchmarsh, overlying choco- 

 late-coloured sandstone and dipping 50° south-east. This formation has been considerably 

 denuded in the valley of the Severn, but it reappears in the north-easterly prolongation 

 of the strata, on the south-eastern flanks of the Wrekin, where it dips rapidly on one 

 side beneath the carboniferous limestone and coal-measures (see Chap. 7. p. 109.) ; and 

 on the other is both recumbent on and perforated by trap rocks. Some of the sand- 

 stones on the sides of the Wrekin and Ercal Hills, are extremely shattered, and altera- 



1 They have been used in the mansion of the proprietor, Sir Edward Smith, Bart. 



3 At Woolhope, also, it will be seen that coarse quartzose grits, almost conglomerates, rise out at once 

 from beneath upper courses of bastard limestone, like those of the Hollies, &c. 



2 E 



