Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 2.djvu/105

Rh § 2. The brine-pits are in the centre of the town, situated in a narrow valley, in the bottom of which runs the small river Salwarp. The sides of the valley rise rather abruptly from the river. Doder Hill, on the right bank, which appeared to me to be the highest of the two sides, I measured with the barometer, and found it to be about eighty feet above the bed of the river.

§ 3. The prevailing rock around Droitwich is a fine-grained calcareo-argillaceous sandstone, of a brownish red colour, with occasional patches and spots which are greenish blue. At Doder Hill, where a vertical section of it is exposed, it contains beds of a greenish grey colour, and of a more indurated texture, but which do not appear to differ materially in composition from the red sandstone. These contain slender veins of crystallized gypsum, the forms of which are very distinct, where the widening of the vein has produced small cavities. I did not observe any gypsum in the red sandstone. The stratification is horizontal, and both the red and the grey rocks, where they are exposed to the air, crumble down into small pieces. I did not discover any traces of organic remains.

This sandstone is the same as that which Mr. Aikin has described as occurring to so great an extent in Shropshire and Staffordshire, and which he considers to be the old red sandstone of Werner. He has also stated that it is found in this district, but as he does not trace it to any particular spot beyond Droitwich, I may here observe, that it appears to me to be the same as that which I found on the banks of the Severn, between twelve and thirteen miles from this place; and I have great reason to believe that it continues without interruption