MIDLAND COUNTIES GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 181 
with your immediate district was afforded by Mr. W. Spar- 
row, a gentleman, whom your Committee could wish would 
more often be induced to take part in your discussions, and 
give the Society the benefit of his practical experience and 
observations. 
A very important investigation connected with the South 
Staffordshire coal field now engages the attention of the 
Dudley Society, viz. : the faults or dislocations in the various 
strata. These are sources of much perplexity and annoyance 
to the miner; by whom their origin and bearing are very 
imperfectly understood. It is the intention of the Sub-Com- 
mittee appointed to examine the subject, to give attention to 
all the known faults, — to examine their causes and effects, 
both present and ulterior, to record their position on maps 
of the district, and to obtain all available data towards form- 
ing definite views as to the extension of the coal field beyond 
the hitherto supposed boundary. The Sub-Committee con- 
sists of several intelhgent ironmasters in the neighbourhood 
of Dudley, and includes several active Members of your 
branch, who will doubtless give every assistance they may 
possess in furtherance of the cause. 
An interesting subject which should engage your attention, 
and one which is peculiarly within your province, will be 
found in the boulders of this district. Immense blocks of 
rounded sienite, porphyry, trap-rock, and (rarely) true granite, 
are constantly met with in the alluvial soils, and not in those 
alone, but at very considerable depths below the surface. The 
otherwise useful labours of M^Adam have caused a sad dimi- 
nution in the number of these stumbling blocks to theGeologist^ 
by putting it into the heads of the surveyors of roads to 
break up the venerable relics for road materials ; and what is 
the consequence ? They are now only to be found in rural 
and retired retreats, and are rapidly ceasing to be. Yet these 
