146 
MIDLAND UNION OF NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETIES. 
of view, as presenting the most easterly exposure of fossiliferons 
Cambrian rocks in Britain. They occur in an elevated tract of 
country, about eight miles in length, ranging from the neighbour¬ 
hood of Bedworth past the towns of Nuneaton and Atherstone into 
Merevale Park. They are overlain unconformably to the westward 
by the carboniferous rocks of the East Warwickshire coal field. 
To the eastwards, Triassic rocks of Keuper age are faulted down 
against them ; and, in certain localities, these Keuper beds creep 
over the Cambrian rocks with a striking unconformability. The 
strata of the Cambrian inlier dip at a steep angle to the westward, 
so that there is an ascending succession as we pass across them 
from east to west. The lowest rock series visible is formed of the 
Caldecote volcanic rocks, consisting of coarse volcanic ashes and fine 
bedded tuffs, with patches of quarfcz-felsite and diabase. These are 
succeeded by a massive quartzite, the well-known Quartzite of 
Hartshill. Above this follows a series of fine bedded shales and 
thin flagstones known collectively as the Stockingford Shales. The 
Lower Stockingford Shales are of deep purple and green tints, and 
yield species of Obolella, Lingula, and Protospongia, &c. The 
Upper Stockingford Shales are grey and green in colour, and 
contain many bands of black shale. The lowest zones of this 
division yield examples of Agnostus ; the middle divisions afford 
Olenus; and the upper beds are locally rich in Dictyonema. The 
Cambrian strata are cut by thick dykes of coarse intrusive diorite, 
which vary in thickness from a mere band to several hundreds of 
feet, and run through the district from end to end. It is proposed 
to visit (1) The Diorite Quarry near Nuneaton Station, Midland 
Railway, where a fine section of the intruded diorite and of the 
unconformably overlying Keuper is laid bare ; (2) The large quarries 
of Hartshill quartzite to the west of Nuneaton Station; (8) The 
sections of the Caldecote ashes, near Caldecote Windmill ; (4) The 
Stockingford Shales of Purley Park, near Atherstone; and (5) The 
Dictyonema beds of Merevale Abbey. Carriages start from 
Nuneaton, go round by Caldecote Windmill, Mancetter, and 
Merevale, returning to Nuneaton Station. Leave Birmingham, 
11.5 a.m. ; leave Nuneaton on return at 5.51 or 7.44 p.m. 
July, 1893. 
