NATURAL HISTORY. 
103 
but it cannot be overlooked even in a cursory sketch 
of the geology of this county. Mr. Keir states this 
district as distinguished by a bed of coal of remarka- 
ble thickness, generally ten yards, and represents 
the formation as extending from Bilston southward 
to Brettel Lane, Amblecoat, and the Lye, near Stour- 
bridge, seven miles in length, and on an average four 
miles in breadth, forming a tract of 28 square miles. ^ 
In the centre of this district are two ranges of hills, 
the limestone hills which begin to rise in the vicinity 
of Bilston and Wolverhampton, extending to the 
town of Dudley^ whose castle occupies the slope 
of the last hill of the chain ; and the basaltic hills 
of Rowley,^ which proceeding from Dudley, through 
Rowley, divide into two branches, and terminate in a 
valley between Oldbury and Halesowen. Dudley 
Castle hill is perforated by caverns, which in some 
^ Keir on the Mining District of south-west Stafford, quoted in Scott's History of 
Stourbridge, 8vo. Mr. Scott observes that " another but very inconsiderable coal- 
formation occurs at Compton, in Kinver, near to which is that of Shatterford, on 
the road from Kidderminster to Bridgenorth, probably joining the coal fields at the 
north-west of the Abberley Hills." 
2 " The district around Dudley Castle," observes Dr. Booker, the worthy vicar 
of Dudley, " presents an interesting field for geological research. Various beds of 
coal, ironstone, and limestone constituting vast sources of wealth to their proprie- 
tors, and of profitable employment to multitudes of miners and mechanics, there 
approach the earth's surface ; the coal, in some places, cropping out, as it is techni- 
cally termed, and chalybeate springs gushing forth, — as if purposely to indicate that 
at no great distance are deposited those subterranean treasures with which the 
Creator has stored the earth, to reward the ingenuity, the labour, and perseverance 
of man." Dr. Booker*s Dudley, 
Two of the hills of this series, Cawney and Tansley, adjoining to Dudley, and 
opposite to the Castle Hill, are in Worcestershire. Columnar basalt occurs on 
several of the hills. 
