180 
THE BASALT OF ROWLEY REGIS. 
series—I am inclined to think the earlier one—once enveloped 
the hills, detached patches of gravel, clay and boulders, 
occurring nearly as high as Rowley village, thus informing 
us of greater and more varied changes having occurred 
than we should otherwise be prepared to expect, and showing, 
I think, that we have not had any deposition of the missing 
strata between the upper coal measures and the boulder-clay, 
unless, indeed, the whole had been deposited and subsequently 
denuded. But in this case, I imagine, some little evidence 
would be left whereby we should be enabled to read aright 
the history of the deposition and removal of such strata, in 
the locality, just as we have the isolated patches of clays and 
gravels which remain to tell of the covering of these materials 
once in existence here. 
If we make the circuit of the hills within the margin of 
the clay-marl deposit we find a series of deep marl holes, in 
none of which, that I am aware of, has the base of the marl 
been touched. The greatest depth reached has been about 
one hundred or one hundred and twenty feet, the bottom at 
this depth being equally good marl with that higher up. 
These deep marl holes furnish evidence that the deposit 
did not take place continuously, for at a depth from the 
surface of about fifty feet we find a bed of fine conglomerate 
rock, the component parts of which are all of basaltic origin, 
unless we except the calcareous material cementing the 
mass.. A section of the clay-marl in one of these holes 
would show thus : — 
Clay-marl at bottom, 
Basaltic conglomerate 
Clay-marl band 
Basaltic conglomerate 
Clay-marl (upper) 
Surface deposits 
about 50 feet thick. 
8 to 6 ,, 
1 to 2 
2 to 5 
30 to 50 
2 
5 > 
? 5 
* ? 
From this section it would appear as though the deposit 
had been arrested more than once, allowing for a considerable 
period to elapse wherein the materials composing the beds of 
conglomerate would have time to be collected and become 
cemented together. That there must have been a shore 
these materials abundantly prove, for they are all rounded 
pebbles, apparently. 
There is one remark about this conglomerate which may 
be made here. The pebbles may not be pebbles—that is, 
stones rounded by aqueous action—at all; they may be the 
small nuclei of dark blue fine-grained stone abounding through¬ 
out the bulk of the roclie in situ, liberated by the saturation 
and disintegration of the roclie, consequent on its removal 
