184 
MIDLAND UNION OF NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETIES. 
WEDNESDAY, JULY 12th. 
An interesting part of the programme for this meeting was a 
series of excursions, which took place on the second day :—(1) A 
Geological Excursion, of which Professor Lapworth, F.R.S., was 
the leader ; (2) a Botanical Excursion, of which Mr. W. B. Grove, 
M.A., was the leader ; and (8) an Archaeological Excursion, of which 
Mr. W. G. Fretton, F.S.A., was the leader. Details of these are 
given below. 
Geological Excursion. 
A Geological Excursion to the Cambrian Rocks of Nuneaton 
and Atherstone was led by Professor Lapworth, F.R.S. The party 
consisted of thirty-seven members, comprising some of the keenest 
geologists from the societies belonging to the Union. The day, 
though rainy, was an unqualified success from a geological point of 
view, as the rain came at very convenient times, and interfered but 
little with the day’s proceedings. 
The neighbourhood of Nuneaton and Atherstone is remarkable, 
geologically, as presenting the most easterly exposure of fossiliferous 
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 quartz felsite and diabase. These are suc¬ 
ceeded 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 Stock- 
ingford Shales are of deep purple and green tints, and yield species 
of Obolella, Lingula, and Protospongia, &c. The Upper Stocking- 
August, 1893. 
