Handbook of Birmingham: Prepared for the Members of the British Association, 1886British Association for the Advancement of Science
History
Handbook of Birmingham: Prepared for the Members of the British Association, 1886
British Association for the Advancement of Science
Birmingham (England); Natural history -- England -- Birmingham
Each section shows a mass of well-rounded hard pebbles,
which have been so pressed together during the earth-movements that
have taken place since their deposition that many are cracked, while
all bear white indentations. The Bunter Conglomerate contains no
fossils of contemporaneous age, but many species of shells have been
obtained from the hard, rounded lumps of rock of which it is composed.
These fossils being of necessity of the age of the rock-fragments in
which they are included, they furnish a clue to the sources from which
the pebble-beds were derived. The following list of these derivative
fossils will give some idea of the results which have already been
obtained:--
ORDOVICIAN (in quartzite pebbles).--(_Arenig Beds._) _Lingula
Lesueurii._ (This interesting brachiopod shell has not yet been
found in its parent rock in England, though it is not uncommon
in the _Gres Armoricain_ of Brittany, a quartzite on the same
horizon as the Stiper stones); various lamellibranchs such as
_Modiolopsis_, _Palaearca_, and _Lyrodesma_ occur.
(_Caradoc and Bala Beds._)--Seven or eight species of
brachiopods, of which the commonest is _Orthis Budleighensis_;
a crinoid (_Glyptocrinus basalis_), &c.
(_May Hill Sandstone._)--Lumps of coarse sandstone, identical
lithologically with the rock which flanks the Lickey Hills,
occur commonly; they contain numerous casts of _Stricklandinia
lirata_, &c.
DEVONIAN.--Nine or ten species of brachiopods (especially
_Spirifera Verneuilii_). Remains of trilobites, such as
_Phacops_ and _Homalonotus_ are not unfrequent.
MOUNTAIN LIMESTONE.--Mr. Molyneux enumerates twenty-two species
of mountain limestone fossils--brachiopods, corals, crinoids,
&c.--which he obtained from the Bunter pebble-beds of Trentham.
Near Birmingham, fragments of partly decomposed chert, in which
the stems of crinoids are beautifully shown, are common in the
same strata.
THE UPPER RED AND MOTTLED SANDSTONE.--Stourbridge stands on the bright
red sands of this division, which extend northward through Kingswinford
to Trysall and Tettenhall. South of Birmingham we find the same strata
at Harborne Heath and Mill--there is a good exposure underneath the
drift in Flavel’s brick pit at “California”--from which point we can
trace the “Upper Mottled” across the western part of Birmingham, by
Rotton Park Reservoir and the Botanical Gardens; the beautiful soft red
sandstone forming a strip about a mile in width between Spring Hill,
Hockley Brook, Aston Villa, and Birchfields on the west, to the foot of
Snow Hill, and Aston Park on the east. In the cemetery adjoining the
Great Western Station at Hockley, there is a grand section, forty feet
in height, where the incoherent sand is largely worked for moulding and
foundry purposes. It is also exposed in and round Aston Park.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account