The Journal of Geology, January-February 1893: A Semi-Quarterly Magazine of Geology and Related Sciences — John Shaqi
The Journal of Geology, January-February 1893: A Semi-Quarterly Magazine of Geology and Related SciencesVarious
Science
The Journal of Geology, January-February 1893: A Semi-Quarterly Magazine of Geology and Related Sciences
Various
Geology -- Periodicals
There can not, I think, be now any doubt that small tracts of gneiss,
quite comparable in lithological character to portions of the Lewisian
rocks of the north-west of Scotland, rise to the surface in a few
places in England and Wales. In the heart of Anglesey, for example,
a tract of such rocks presents some striking external or scenic
resemblance to the characteristic types of ground where the oldest
gneiss forms the surface in Scotland and the west of Ireland. In the
Malvern Hills another small knob of somewhat similar material is
obviously far more ancient than the Cambrian rocks of that locality.
There may possibly be still some further exposures of similar rocks in
the south of England, as for instance in southern Cornwall. In Anglesey
a series of schists, quartzites and limestones has been included by
Mr. J. F. Blake with the coarse gneiss above referred to, and a thick
higher group of slates in what he terms the "Monian" system. These
schists, quartzites and limestones present a close resemblance to the
Dalradian series of Scotland and Ireland, and the quartzites, like
those of the Highlands, contain worm-burrows. The coarse gneiss, as
I have said, may be compared in general character with parts of the
Lewisian rocks, so that we seem to have here, as in Ireland, two groups
of schistose rocks, and both of these must be much older than the
unaltered Cambrian strata which lie above them.
Along the eastern borders of Wales, there is an interrupted ridge of
igneous rocks which were originally supposed to have broken through the
older Palæozoic formations, but which now, owing mainly to the labors
of Dr. Callaway and Professor Lapworth, are shown to be older than
the base of the Cambrian system. These rocks consist of spherulitic
and perlitic felsites, with volcanic breccias and tuffs. They are
undoubtedly older than the _Olenellus_ zone. Though the evidence is
not quite satisfactory, they may not impossibly lie at the base of
a vast mass of sedimentary rocks forming the ridge of the Longmynd.
In that case the whole of the Longmynd succession with the volcanic
group at its base must be pre-Cambrian and lie unconformably below the
_Olenellus_ zone. Dr. Callaway has proposed the name "_Uriconian_"
for this volcanic group, while the sedimentary series has been termed
"_Longmyndian_." On the supposition that the unconformability is
established, there would here be a vast mass of stratified and partly
erupted material forming a pre-Cambrian formation. Whether in that case
any portion of this English series is the equivalent of the Torridonian
rocks of Scotland remains to be determined. The northwestern part of
the Longmynd ridge is made of red sandstones and conglomerates, which
certainly resemble the Torridonian rocks of Ross and Sutherland.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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