New red sandstone.— We have now very briefly to examine the position of the rocks forming the New red sandstone formation. The northern part of Cannock Chase consists of red sandstones and pebble beds belonging to the middle and lower portions of the New red. These rocks must dip very gently to the north-north-east, in which direction they pass under the upper red marls on the north side of the rivers Sow and Trent. Similar beds on the east side of the coal-field between Lichfield and Rugeley, having @ similar dip, likewise pass under the red marls north of the river Trent. These marls, partly by the northerly dip of their beds, partly by the rise of the ground in that direction, become eventually capped by two large patches of Lias, the one occupying Bagot's Park and part of Needwood Forest, the other spreading round Christchurch on Needwood (see Map. Sheet 72, south-east). The sandstones under these marls rise to the westward algo, and crop on the high ground between Ingestre and Stafford; but the bottom parts of the red marls are suddenly brought in again by a downcast fault, which is believed to be an extension of the branch that comes from the western boundary fault near Cannock. In consequence of this depression of the beds, the red marls spread themselves over all the country from Stafford to Penkridge and Brewood as far south as Wrottesley Park, and even to the south of that another patch of them is thought to be brought in by a fault, so as to cap the high ground between the Wergs and Nurton. From this point the middle and lower parts of the New red sandstone are seen to stretch uninterruptedly to the southward, till they are again covered by the red marls of Worcestershire a little south of Bellbroughton.
Between Cannock and Wombourne the general dip of those beds must be to the north-west, both from their passing under the red marls in that direction and from their allowing the Permians to rise from beneath them on the south-east.
From Wombourne to the neighbourhood of Stourbridge they probably scarcely deviate from horizontality, except where they rise to the eastward to allow the Permian beds to appear at the surface, or are tilted slightly on approaching the boundary fault of the coal-field. South of Hagley and Clent the general inclination of the New red must be to the southward, the pebble beds rising on to the flanks of the Clent Hills,[1] and the red marls setting in south of Bellbroughton and at Chaddesley Corbett, and Elmsley Lovett.[2] Between these places the red marls are underlaid by a white sandstone exactly similar to that under the marls near Albrighton and about Codsall, Brewood, Penkridge,
- ↑ The quartzose gravel or pebble beds of the New red sandstone about Clent and Calcot Hill rest directly on or against the angular trappean breccia of the Permian formation. Notwithstanding the incoherent and easily transported character of the materials of the two formations, their boundary is wonderfully distinct, so much so that it can be traced across ploughed fields merely by the nature of the pebbles and fragments lying on the surface, so little have these been mingled either during the deposition of the New red or at any subsequent period.
- ↑ From this to the end of the chapter is an account of the work done by Professor Ramsay, assisted by Mr. Howell.
