438 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



why if shells and nsli and crabs lived therein, their remains should 

 after death be destroyed by snch mineral agencies, in every condition 

 of the surface antagonistic to conservation. But whether the whole 

 bed — of no mean thickness be it remembered, and evidencing a great 

 lapse of time — can furnish no trace of its former life, is yet to be 

 proved ; and I do not by any means advise local observers to give up 

 search, especially in the lighter- coloured strata. 



This lowest member of the rock-group, known as New E,ed, is the 

 highest, most recent deposit — excepting the gravel of the Severn 

 Strait age — crossed by the railway near to the town. 



But at Mount Pleasant, south of Bewdley, the line is taken by tun- 

 nelling through the central conglomerate, or pebble-bed rock, which 

 forms the commanding fort of Pendleston, or the High Rock, 

 near Bridgnorth, and at "Wilden, two miles south-east of Mount 

 Pleasant, the upper soft Bed Sandstone is cut into by an excavation, 

 the rock- walls of which tower to the height of sixty feet above the line ; 

 wliile at the terminus of the railway, near Hartlebury, the cuttings 

 show that the ascending order of geological deposits, which, since we 

 crossed the dome of Old Bed at the Hill Wood, north of Bewdley, we 

 have rigidly kept to, has brought us up to the Waterstones, a sandstone 

 rock, easily distinguishable from those we have seen, by its containing 

 small shining scales of white indestructable mica. 



I hope no one will look upon this sketch, which an intimate know- 

 ledge of the Bridgnorth district enables me to give, as exhaustive of 

 the subject, or other than a general introduction, upon the broadest 

 basis, to the geological history of that locality. And among the lessons 

 learnt from it, this one I trust, will be the longest remembered — that 

 man's enterprise is an instrument in the hand of the Creator, for 

 furthering knowledge of His works, and displaying to us, in rock- 

 cutting and tunnelling, the operation of His hands — whispered truths 

 of hidden and secret nature — " whether we will hear them or whether 

 we will forbear !" 



ON NEW BBACHIOPODA, AND ON THE DEVELOPMENT 

 OF THE LOOP IN TEBEBRATELLA. 



By Chaeles Mooke, F.G-.S. 



At the time of the commencement of Mr. Davidson's monogTaph on 

 British Brachiopoda, published by the Paloeontographical Society, 

 little had been done towards their systematic arrangement and classi- 

 fication. Sowerby had figured many species ; but valuable materials 

 were accimiulatcd, and many new forms waiting for description in 

 the cabincis of dilfercnt collectors, which have since been done jus- 

 Hcc to ill the above valuable publication. 



