238 MR. E. W. BINNEY ON THE PERMIAN BEDS 



In an open work belonging to the trustees of the late Duke 

 of Bridgewater, I lately inspected the limestone, and found it 

 there lying nearly level. The first bed was about seven 

 inches in thickness, then came red clay six inches, after that 

 limestone five inches, next several beds of about an inch each, 

 parted by clays. The limestone (5) was hollowed out in this 

 way: — 



' — _ _ _ ^^ 



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and filled up with bluish-coloured till, which was there from 

 twelve to fourteen feet in thickness. 



Mr. Hugh Watson, chemist, of Bolton, analysed a sample 

 of the Bedford limestone, and found the following results : — 



Carbonate of lime 56.5 



Aluminous and siliceous earths 38.6 



Oxides of manganese and iron 02.5 



Water 02,6 



100.0 



The beds of sandstone under the marls and limestones 

 have not been much examined, but they certainly occur lying 

 above the coal-measures at Bedford Colliery, where the 

 Worsley four-feet is worked. I have not been able to examine 

 these beds in situ, but after sinking through the permian 

 marls and limestones at the adjoining colliery, the property of 

 Messrs. Samuel Jackson and Co., a bed of red and variegated 

 sandstone was met with, 135 feet in thickness, on the top of 

 which was a singular-looking sandstone of a greenish brown 

 colour, mottled with red marks, containing a good deal of per 

 oxide of iron and nodules of red clay. This, from examination 

 of the specimens of rock now lying on the pit bank, I have 

 little doubt but of its being the conglomerate bed lying im- 

 mediately under the marls. In some of the sandstones there 

 appear impressions of calamites, sigillaria and fossil wood, but 

 whether they belong to the permian or carboniferous strata, 



