Thickness Thickness near in Cheshire. Birmingham. Feet. Feet. KEUPER RED MARLS (with the Upper Keuper Sandstone) f. 6. 3,000 700 LOWER KEUPER SANDSTONE, f. 5. 450 200 _Muschelkalk_ (wanting in England). UPPER MOTTLED SANDSTONE, f. 3. 500 200 PEBBLE BEDS, _or Bunter Conglomerate_, f. 2. 600 400 LOWER MOTTLED SANDSTONE, f. 1. 400 (wanting.) The Trias enters England on the south coast, between Torbay and Exmouth. At the little watering-place of Budleigh Salterton there is a bed of quartzite pebbles in the Trias 100 feet thick which is worthy of study in connection with the great numbers of similar pebbles that occur in the same strata round Birmingham. In West Somerset and Devon, the Triassic strata are 3,500 feet in thickness. Their subdivisions cannot be correlated with those of the Midlands, for they appear to have been deposited in a separate basin, of which the Mendips, &c., still mark the northern boundary. Crossing into Gloucestershire, we find the vale of the Severn composed of Triassic marls, and thence northwards the “red rocks” broaden till they form the plains of Cheshire and South Lancashire on the west, and extend eastward to Warwick, Leicester, and Derby. From this great central plain of our island a long strip of Triassic sandstones and marls runs northwards, forming the Vale of Trent and the Vale of York, until finally it reaches the coast between Redcar and Hartlepool. Along the main line of outcrop--from the Malvern Hills to the mouth of the Tees--the Triassic strata incline gently, or dip, to the south-east, at from two to five degrees. Of the two great divisions of the Trias, the lower (Bunter) is mainly sandy; while the upper (Keuper) is chiefly a stiff marl or clay. One result of this is that while the outcrop of the former is usually barren, forming much heath or waste land, as Sherwood Forest, the Keuper marls produce a rich soil, well fitted for the plough. Owing to the soft nature of the strata, valleys are usually hollowed out in the Lower and Upper Mottled Sandstones, while the Keuper marls form an undulating plain. On the other hand the harder nature of the Bunter pebble bed, and the Lower Keuper Sandstone, causes these two rocks to form escarpments or lines of hills, parallel to each other; the abrupt face generally looking west or north-west, while the gentle slope is to the east or south-east, agreeing with the average dip.