40 ME. E. W. BINNEY ON THE ORIGIN OF IRONSTONES. 



At the close of the silurian, carboniferous, and permian 

 periods in England, great disturbances appear to have taken 

 place in the earth's crust, and much sesquioxide of iron was 

 mingled with the waters of the globe; but, at intervals, during 

 the formation of the vast deposits accumulating during those 

 three epochs, especially during the carboniferous, volcanic 

 agency was doubtless more or less active, and thus supplies of 

 iron would be sent into the sea from time to time. 



After examining the beds of haematite found in the carboni- 

 ferous strata in regular beds, as in the vicinity of Whitehaven, 

 and those at Ipstones, forming the subject of the present 

 communication, no one scarcely can doubt but that they had 

 their origin in volcanic vents, and flowed into the waters of 

 the sea, where they were deposited with the argillaceous and 

 siliceous impurities found associated with them, layer by 

 layer, like any other substances thrown down from suspen- 

 sion. This is evident from the beautifully laminated structure 

 of the Ipstone bed. 



The vast deposits of haematite found in the north of 

 Lancashire, in the hundred of Furness, occur in great clefts 

 of the carboniferous limestone.* These, no doubt, from their 

 great purity, being but little mixed with foreign matters, had 

 their origin from volcanic sources, on or near the spot where 

 they are now found. Some of them probably may have come 

 up through the bottom of the clefts in which they occur, and 

 others from a short distance, and flowed with water into their 

 present positions. 



The argillaceous iron ores of the coal measures, now so 

 generally used, have a composition, according to Dr. Colqu- 

 houn,t of — 



• See Paper, by the Author, on the Geology of Low Furness, printed in 

 Vol. VIIT. (New Series) of the Society's Memoirs, p. 422. 



f See Paper on the Iron Resources of the United Kingdom, by S. H. 

 Blackwell, Esq., F.G.S.,p. 151 ; read before the Society of Arts in April, 1852. 



