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



Laurence Rock. In the west of Lancashire it is called the 

 Upholland Flag, and is always known to overlie the lower 

 coals. It dips to the south-east, at an angle of 26°, and some 

 of its lowest beds on their rise abut against the upper new red 

 sandstone lying in the valley below, and extending from there 

 to beyond Liverpool without interruption. The occurrence 

 of the upper new red sandstone on the rise of the coal- 

 measures seems to indicate a great downthrow of the latter 

 filled up with red sandstone. Where the coals come up again 

 to the west remains yet to be proved. The upper new red 

 sandstone, when next seen on the railway near Broad Green, 

 dips eastwards. 



The last three sections afford us valuable information as 

 to the different characters of the dislocations which have 

 broken up the coal-field. The first of them exhibits an 

 anticlinal axis, showing that the carboniferous, permian 

 and trias beds have been affected by the Sutton fault; the 

 Whiston section shows the protrusion of the carboniferous 

 strata through the trias without exposing any of the permian 

 beds; but the coal-measures of Halsnead and Huyton were 

 most probably elevated before the new red sandstone was 

 deposited on their western flanks. This last-named rock, no 

 doubt, overlies a great mass of coal-measures between Huyton 

 and Liverpool. Betwixt Liverpool and the Irish Sea, few, if 

 any, searches for coal have been made to my knowledge ; but 

 if the upper new red sandstone can be found cropping out to 

 the west, there is every reason to believe that coals will be 

 met with under it. On the other hand, if this sandstone west 

 of Liverpool dips westward, the coals will be at a great 

 depth. 



In all the attempts which have been made at Liverpool in 

 sinking and boring for water I am not aware of the upper 

 new red sandstone having been perforated, although some of 

 these bores reached about 600 feet in depth. If the last- 

 named rock could be gone through, there is no reason to 



