GEOLOGY JUST as the county of Staffordshire is situated toward the centre of England, so the geological formations met within its boundaries occupy a similar position in the geological scale. Tracing the well-known orderly ascending sequence of rocks from the oldest in Wales to the newest in the eastern counties, we find in the Triassic formation of the midlands the central link between these two extremes. The rocky ridges which characterise the older formations on the Welsh borderlands, when traced eastward, pass gradually beneath a mantle of red Triassic sandstones and marls, until in Staffordshire the latter form the commonest features of the landscape. Rising as islands out of them much older formations appear at the surface in the north and south, where by their bolder scenic aspects they afford a sharp contrast to the monotonous and softer outline of the red rocks ; and since the minerals essential to modern civilization are found in these older strata their presence is indicated by the great centres of population whose natural wants have been largely supplied from the rich grazing lands and vast reservoirs of pure underground water existing in the enveloping newer formation. The study of the geology of the county therefore forms the natural prelude to its history. Extending as they do over by far the larger part of the county, the red Triassic rocks, which have been aptly compared to a solidified sea, afford a datum to which the other stratified deposits may be conveni- ently referred. This great spread of one formation has been brought about by the dying away, ere it reaches the centre of the county, of the great Pennine uplift, which further north divides the Trias into an eastern and western portion. Thrown into wide gentle undulations where the major Pennine movement has died away, the formation naturally covers a wide expanse ; but these red rock waves may be said to have piled themselves up and broken against two ancient ridges : first, in North Staffordshire against the carboniferous offshoot of Derby- shire ; secondly, against the carboniferous uplift in South Staffordshire. In this way the conspicuous island character of these older deposits has arisen. Further, in the highest summits of the South Staffordshire island we recognize in the Dudley Hills and Sedgley Beacon the unburied peaks of Silurian strata, standing as lonely outposts of the Silurian territory to the west. It will be gathered from this that the formations represented are few in number. Of the three main divisions into which geologists have separated the stratified rocks, only the later portion of the great Palae- ozoic, the early stages of the Mesozoic and latest phases of the
