Joseph Beete Jukes

“ Phragmoceras pyriforme occurs at Dudley, Lituites comu-arietis, and L. tortuosus are only occasionally met with.
There are several rarer fossils, which we can scarcely do more than notice here; among others, two species of Chiton; an Ischadites, distinct from I. Kenigii; Pleurorhynchus aquicostatus; new species of Bellerophon; Pleurotomaria; Chemnitzia; Cyclonema; and other spiral shells. We may hope to have several of the new species published under the auspices of the Palæontographical Society.
The limestone was evidently a deep-water formation, and very tranquilly deposited. ”

“ Three species of Paleocyclus, a little mushroom coral, are beautiful forms. The smaller Millepores and branched corals are the most numerous. Alveolites Labechei, A. repens and A. seriatoporoides, Chatetes Fletcheri, Conites intertextus, C. juniperinus, and C. labrosus are minute-celled species. Favosites cristata has larger tubes. Two or three species of Heliolites, such as H. Grayi, H. petalliformis, and H. tubulatus, Labechia conferta, Thecia Swindernana. The last four species are everywhere found in Wenlock limestone. ”

“ These rocks have been so fully described by Sir R. I. Murchison in his "Silurian System" that there remains but little to say respecting them.
Ludlow and Sedgley rocks.—The mass of the Ludlow and Wenlock rocks, or, as they might here be called, the Sedgley and Dudley rocks, consists of a brown or blueish grey argillaceous shale, always very smooth and compact, thick-bedded and regularly jointed. In the upper portion is a band of dark brown nodular and concretionary limestone, some 20 or 25 feet in thickness. ”

“ It is probable that these are the representatives of the Barr limestone, which is very likely of partial occurrence, as an actual limestone, though thin calcareous courses may be found generally on its horizon. At the upper end of the field, under the hedge, was the small quarry. There was but a very small exposure of rock, not enough to show the dip of the beds, which, however, may be presumed to be the same as that of the other Silurian rocks of the neighbourhood, or about 5° to the west. ”

“ The fossils of the Bromsgrove Lickey have already been adverted to. It is sufficient to note that they are the common Llandovery or May Hill shells, such as Pentamerus oblongus, with P. lens, Spirifer elevatus, and a variety of Orthis calligramma, &c. They occur always as casts in the incoherent red grit, and are generally of full size. The fossils of the small patch of sandstone visible at Shustoke Lodge, near Barr, are also clearly referrible to the Upper Llandovery (or May Hill) zone. Among a number of Upper Silurian forms, such as the common species ”

“ At Hobbs Hole, a little east of Darlaston, the Silurian rocks lying below the Coal-measures have the following composition, according to the information of Mr. Smallman:—
In this neighbourhood (Walsall) the Dudley limestone crops out at a gentle angle, and the lower shale rises from underneath it, spreading out to the east over a tract nearly 2 miles in width, till another band, known as the Barr limestone, rises to the surface at Hay Head, near Great Barr. ”

“ At Sedgley, at the Beacon Hill, and at the Park School, some of the other Aymestry fossils have been found, viz., Phacops caudatus, the common Atrypa reticularis, Spirifer plicatellus, variety interlineatus, and Rhynchonella Stricklandi, together with Strophomena depressa, a Turbo, and a cup coral. ”

“ From the neighbourhood of Parkes Hall a good many species have occurred to the persevering search of Mr. John Gray. The following are a few of these. Bivalves seem to have been the most abundant, such as—
Orthonota semisulcata, O. impressa, O. rigida, O. amygdalina; Pterinea lineatula, P. Sowerbyi; Avicula ampliata and A. mira; Mytilus mytilimeris; Goniophora cymbaformis; Schizodus; Cardiola striata; and many others. ”