326 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
Hill, about half-a-milc out of Mitclieldean, where the complete 
soqucucc of the beds is to be seen, as in the following diagram 
Millstone-Sl it. Carbouiferons Limestone. OUl Kcd Sandstoue. 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 
1. Sandstone vein cf Iron Ore. 2. White ITcad Limestone. 3. Limeslonc vein of Inm Ore. 
4. Grey .nnd lied Limestone. 5. Bhu-k rock Limestone. G. Foicliiie Limestone. 7. tJrej- Sand- 
stone. 8. Conglomerate. 
In two thin and nearly vertical bands of shale, so rotten that it is 
difficult to secure a whole square foot of it, whicli repose rcspeclivoly 
on beds of about a foot thick of very hard, partly crystalline, limestone, 
charged with a considerable per ct^ntage of sand, so thick do the ossicula 
lie, that in dry weather a little gentle crumbling will detach thera 
by hundreds. Besides the trochites, portions of encrinital stems or 
entrochites, three, four, and even five inches long, are often to be 
obtained, as well as the plates of the pelvis, and a great number more or 
less perfect terminal branches or arm?. The most common species is 
the Platycrinus triakonta-dactylus, or thirty-fiugcrcd enerinite, but 
remains of the Actinocrinns or " navc-cncrinite " arc also very abundant. 
Mingled with the Crinoidca, in the shale bods, arc vast numbers of 
shells of Brachiopoda, including two species of Spirifer (S. striatus and 
5. cuspidatus), and one of Tercbratula (T. hastata). 
Perhaps the most interesting circumstance connected with these fossil- 
beds is the lesson in physical geology which may bo learnt from them.. 
Wo find the stems of the crinoidca attached to the bed of limestone, 
and growing, as it were, out from it ; wc find the lower portions of the 
.stems projecting a short distance into the shale; and then wc find the 
upper parts of these same stems broken into pieces, and the disconnected 
ossicula scattered about in every conceivable position, many of them 
crushed, and all more or less exhibiting evidence of the violence of 
the forces causing their destruction. 
The recurrence of this condition of things, in two separate sets of 
beds of shale and limestone, as seen in the Plump Hill quarrj-, would 
show a return to the same condition of sca-bottom, and probably a 
repetition of the same physical agencies at long separated intervals of time. 
{To he coniiiiucd.) 
