THE LOWER KEUPER SANDSTONE.--The lower member of the Keuper is the most consolidated part of the Triassic formation, being best known as a tolerably hard sandstone, white or pink in colour, which often yields good building stone. The “basement beds” of the Keuper are certain coarse sandstones and chocolate coloured marls seen in a pit at “California,” near Harborne. Above these come massively-bedded sandstones, of which there is a good exposure in the now disused quarry at Weoley Castle. Commencing at Edgbaston, we can trace the Lower Keuper Sandstone by the Five Ways, and across the central highest part of Birmingham to Nechells, Gravelly Hill, and Erdington. Its lower boundary line, where it reposes on the Bunter, may be indicated by a line drawn from the junction of Monument Road with Hagley Road to the bottom of Snow Hill, and thence to Aston Station. From this point it extends eastward, for from one mile (Edgbaston) to half-a-mile (Aston). The ridge on which stands the Town Hall, St. Philip’s Church, &c., (475 feet above sea-level) is formed by the Lower Keuper Sandstone, and deep excavations for foundations in the centre of the town, frequently disclose the thin-bedded, dull-coloured, pinkish sandstones (known to workmen as “skerry”) which constitute the upper portion of this rock. Its thickness under Birmingham may be estimated at 200 feet. The average dip is from three to five degrees south-east. Similar beds are exposed in the cutting at Bromsgrove Railway Station, and it was from a quarry here (now closed) that the remarkable fossil fish was obtained, which was described by Sir Philip Egerton as _Dipteronotus cyphus_. From quarries at Coton End, Guy’s Cliff, Cubbington and Blakedown Hill, near Warwick, bones and teeth of four species of the _Labyrinthodon_ have been obtained, and foot-prints of the same creature have been found in the Lower Keuper Sandstone in many localities. THE KEUPER RED MARL is the uppermost member of the Trias. Near Birmingham it is abruptly separated from the Lower Keuper Sandstone by a line of _fault_, which can be traced from Selly Oak northwards to the junction of the Rea with the Tame. East of this line of fault, the red marls extend for ten or twelve miles forming an undulating fertile plain, on which stand Moseley, Smallheath, and Castle Bromwich, Coleshill and Whitacre. The thickness of the Keuper Marls is considerable. A boring in Smallheath Park was made to a depth of 440 feet entirely in such strata; but quite lately another boring at King’s Heath has been continued to a depth of 700 feet. Gypsum is plentiful in the red marls, occurring in white fibrous layers, but not of sufficient thickness to be of any value in this district. At Droitwich (eighteen miles south-west of Birmingham) the Keuper Marls contain a thick bed of rock salt, which yields an inexhaustible supply of _brine_.