The Stratigraphy and Geological Structure of the Cambrian Area of Comley, Shropshire

Abstract

The object of this paper is to record the exact position of the excavations which I carried out at Comley between 1906 and 1915, and to describe the stratigraphy and tectonics of the Comley area as revealed in the natural and artificial exposures. With a few exceptions, the fossils found have already been described (11) (12) (13) (14),1 the faunal assemblages have been tabulated, and the strata assigned to some twenty faunal horizons The excavations were undertaken with financial assistance from the Committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science appointed ' for the excavation of critical sections among the Palaeozoic rocks of Wales and the West of England,' and the results were reported to the Association as the work proceeded. A few additional excavations have been made during 1926, notes on which will be found below (p. 555). The Comley Cambrian area, with the sub-area of the Cwms, is barely one-third of a square mile in extent. It is bounded (see map, PI. XLIII) on the west by the pre-Cambrian rocks of the Caradoc range; on the south by red grits and conglomerates that are referred in this paper to the Torridonian (?), and correlated with the Western or Wentnor Series of the Longmyndian, (17) pp. 327 & 334; on the east by the Uriconian of the Hope Bowdler and Cardington mass, and by the Caradocian of Hoar Edge and the Chatwall Ridge; northwards the boundary is ill-defined. The Shineton Shales {Dictyonema and higher beds) occur in