Page:The South Staffordshire Coalfield - Joseph Beete Jukes - 1859.djvu/127

Rh the space between those two limestones, but where seen, as in the cutting of the new canal that runs from Hay Head to the Tame Valley, the shale was always found in a nearly horizontal position.

At the Hay Head quarries the Barr limestone rises from beneath the shale at an angle of about 8° or 10° on an average. Drawing the section from these data, the Barr limestone will probably lie at a depth of about 500 or 600 feet below the Dudley limestone, though it may easily be more.

In mineral character, the Barr limestone much resembles that of Woolhope in Herefordshire, which lies at the junction of the Wenlock and Llandovery rocks, and it may very easily be at or near the actual base of the Wenlock rocks as they exist in Staffordshire. In this case we ought to have the Llandovery sandstone rising out immediately to the east of the Barr limestone.

In the former edition of this Memoir I stated that there was no appearance of this sandstone from underneath the Barr limestone, or below the base of the Wenlock rocks, in the neighbourhood of Great Barr or Hay Head, as I thought I had examined every place where it could appear and had not found it.

The late Mr. Daniel Sharpe, however, called my attention to a quarry of it, which had escaped my notice, in consequence of its small size, and its being situated under a steep bank, overgrown with brambles and nettles, at the side of a field in which, when I visited it, the wheat was high and in full ear.

Llandovery sandstone.—I revisited the locality in the year 1853 and was guided to the old quarry by Mr. George Eglinton, of Shustoke Lodge, who had himself pointed out the quarry to Mr. Sharpe.

In the ploughed field, which slopes gently up to the quarry, fragments of grey shale were observable on the ground with small cakes and concretionary flakes of limestone, like those described below as being found at the Colmers, near the Lickey.

It is probable that these are the representatives of the Barr limestone, which is very likely of partial occurrence, as an actual limestone, though thin calcareous courses may be found generally on its horizon. At the upper end of the field, under the hedge, was the small quarry. There was but a very small exposure of rock, not enough to show the dip of the beds, which, however, may be presumed to be the same as that of the other Silurian rocks of the neighbourhood, or about 5° to the west. The rock was a pale yellow or brown sandstone, in some placcs nearly white and purely quartzose, in others stained with ferruginous bands forming concentric rings. Other portions were calcareous, almost deserving the name of an arenaceous limestone. It was greatly jointed, splitting into sharp angular fragments.

Some parts of it were highly fossiliferous, and Mr. Salter determined the following species in the few blocks of the rock