234 TRAP OF WROCKARDINE AND CHARLTON.— TRAP OF LILLESHALL. 



dian of Wrockardine, Rushton and Charlton, other lines of trap are met with, the major axis of 

 which, trending equally from north-east to south-west, has a greater length than that of the Wrekin, 

 heing traceable in protruding lumps which here and there rise to the surface in the tract between 

 Admaston Spring and Cound Cottage on the Severn. From the knolls above Admaston to near 

 Wrockardine, the chief rock is the same compact red felspar as that of the Wrekin. At Wrock- 

 ardine is another variety, composed of green earth, felspar, hornblende, and a little carbonate of 

 lime. At Lea rock, where cut through by the new Holyhead road, besides the pink-coloured 

 compact felspar, there is a mottled rock of the same materials with disseminated epidote, and this 

 passes into a porphyritic clinkstone. At Rushton, the trap which appears in and near the village, 

 consists of felspar, epidote, quartz, &c, and near it are quartzose altered sandstones, and veins of 

 pink and white quartz rock. At Charlton Hill there are several varieties, such as, 1. Porphyry, 

 i. e. grey compact felspar, with small crystals of common felspar; 2. Pink compact felspar rock; 

 3. Greenstone, almost basaltic ; 4. Dingy green-coloured rock of felspar, mixed with chlorite or 

 green earth; 5. Pink and brown mottled compact felspar, with grains of quartz (corneen?). These 

 rocks occupy the chief part of the hill above Charlton Mill, flanked by highly inclined, and altered 

 strata of shale and sandstone, through which they protrude, a considerable mass of the latter being 

 converted into quartz rock, (on the south-western slopes of the hill). From this point to the valley 

 of the Severn there is a considerable fall in the surface of the country, and the stratified rocks are 

 obscured by gravel, the depression being occupied on its western side by the Lower New Red Sand- 

 stone of Wroxeter, which extends to Shrewsbury ; and also by the little patch of coal measures 

 at Dry ton, already described, p. 93. In the bed of the Severn at Cound Cottage, the line of the 

 trap rock was formerly exhibited in irregularly projecting lumps, which as they impeded the 

 navigation have been nearly destroyed, but when the river is low, their remains can be detected 

 upon the right bank. The rock is here a dull green trap of a very mixed character, with steatite 

 and veins of calcareous matter, some of it approaching to serpentine. The axis of this lineof trap 

 is further traceable across Cound Moor, by vertical and tilted beds of the Caradoc Sandstone. 



The line of eruption, extending from Admaston to Cound, is not a prolongation of the Caradoc, 

 but forms a third and separate parallel between it and the Wrekin. (See Map.) 



" Lilleshall Hill," (PL 1. fig. 15.) 



This hill is nearly half a mile long, and about three or four hundred paces broad, 

 rising to a sharp summit about three hundred and fifty feet above the sea 1 . Its axis 

 trends from north-east to south-west, and it is therefore parallel to that of the Wrekin. 

 The greater portion of the hill, particularly the central and eastern, is a deep red syenite, 

 some varieties of which are coarse grained, others exceedingly fine, the latter passing 

 into granular and compact felspar, one of the knotty summits being a perfect hornstone. 

 On the whole the rock is similar to that of the Wrekin. 



On the north-western face the trap is extensively quarried for the roads, the chief mass consist- 

 ing of slaty, pale green, compact felspar, coloured red externally by iron ; and further to the north 



1 The summit of Lilleshall Hill has recently been ornamented by a monument, erected to the memory of 

 the late Duke of Sutherland. 



