OF THE NORTH-WEST OF ENGLAND. 245 



with it. The miners who were engaged in sinking the pits 

 informed me that the last named rock contained much water, 

 and was composed of very sharp grained sand, which rasped 

 their tools quickly 



The upper new red sandstone is seen by the side of the lane 

 leading to the station on the Liverpool and Manchester 

 Railway. It consists of reddish sand without much cohesion. 

 The dip is rather difficult to make out, but it seems to be 

 towards the east. Under this sandstone dip 30 feet of red and 

 greenish mottled marls, containing small lenticular markings, 

 and dipping at an angle of 10° to the east-south-east. In 

 these beds Mr. Smith, a gentleman residing in the neighbour- 

 hood, and well acquainted with the strata, informed me that 

 he had found nodules of limestone and impressions of shells. 

 Then comes a rock of about 90 feet thick of red and variegated 

 sand used for moulding purposes, and dipping under and in 

 the same direction as the marls last mentioned. Although 

 this sandstone has only been proved 90 feet, Mr. Smith 

 estimates its thickness at above 300 feet. On the top of it 

 are found large nodules, some of them half a ton in weight, 

 very hard, and when broken showing a mottled appearance, 

 and containing a good deal of red marl and peroxide of 

 iron. They at first sight might be taken for conglomerates, 

 but to me they are more like chemical aggregations of 

 different substances from a pasty state than rolled pebbles. 

 Whatever their origin, they cannot be distinguished from the 



