Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 27.djvu/391

At Putley, near the road from Ledbury to Woolhope, to the N.E. of the latter village, a remarkable bed of very hard horizontal sandstone, composed mainly of small pieces of quartz in a sandy matrix, overlying a stratum of white and yellow clay, used for making tiles, may be seen in a brickyard to the depth of about 3 or 4 feet, the blocks of sandstone averaging about 2 feet in thickness. I could find no fossils in it, and it had very much the aspect of a volcanic rock ; but my friend Professor Phillips, to whom I sent a specimen, recognized it at once, and states that he believes it to have been derived from Trappean and other Plutonic rocks, though it may be presumed to be one of the bands of sandstone belonging to this series. About two miles to the south of Putley, at a farm called " Chandler's," there is a sandstone quarry, which yields large blocks 1-1/2 feet square, having a dip to the north-east, a portion of which is of a very dark colour, almost black, similar to the peculiar igneous-looking rock just referred to ; and at one place the strata are much contorted, being thrown up in a small anticlinal. From the top of Marcle Hill, for at least three quarters of a mile, in a lane leading to this quarry, on each side of it, there is a thin band of sandstone, running parallel with the road ; but no " olive shales" appear above it. Three miles to the north, on Putley common, near Maine's wood, other beds of a close-grained more or less quartzose sandstone occur, in which I found the cast of the larger form of Lingula cornea. This seems to correspond with the hard micaceous grit (though there of a purple colour) at the Tin Mills, Downton, which immediately overlies the " olive shales," and contains the large Lingula cornea in abundance. The beds were much disturbed, and more or less inclined, as most of the " passage-beds" are here, dipping from the older Silurian rocks of Woolhope, and in the same direction, for the most part on this side. The partial opening was of no great depth, and therefore the thickness of the sandstone visible was of limited extent ; but judging from the relative position of the Ludlow formation on the west, and the Old Red Sandstone on the east, the thickness would perhaps be considerable if fairly exposed. A mile or two towards the north-west, near Lower Hazle, between this spot and Tarrington, is a small quarry of thick-bedded variable sandstones, charged as usual with carbonaceous remains, but finer-grained than those already described. On the same line, still further towards the north-west, on the brow of the rising ground called " Hillfoot," similar bands of sandstone are exposed, more or less disturbed, dipping towards the northeast, and underneath them the " olive shales," 3 or 4 feet thick, passing into, and resting on, a thin stratum of sandstone, similar to the section at Perton. The shales are horizontal, and contain in the lower part abundant fragmentary relics of plants, among which are the seed-vessels of Lycopodium, and larger fruits (or sporangia) which seem to be quite distinct. I could find no Crustacea ; but a longer and careful search would no doubt detect them. I also obtained one specimen of the smaller form of Lingula cornea, supposing this species to be identical, which Mr. Symonds thinks it is