258 MR. E. W. BINNET ON THE PERMIAN BEDS 



well known and in common use, without committing myself 

 to any views as to its origin. Some portions of this deposit 

 to my mind shew as much resemblance to a segregation of 

 particles when in a pasty state by chemical affinity, as a col- 

 lection of rolled fragments of ancient rocks cemented together 

 with carbonate of lime; although I do not deny that many 

 angular and rolled pebbles are certainly found in it. In some 

 instances the pebbles form the chief part of the rock, and in 

 others the cement. Few fossil remains appeared to me in the 

 specimens of limestone which I examined in the neighbour- 

 hood of Kirkby Stephen and Brough, and many of them, 

 although, on the outside looking like boulders, are hollow, 

 resembling potato stones, and filled with crystals of carbonate 

 of lime. 



Near Stenkreth Bridge, the conglomerate, there known by 

 the local name of "bruckram," consists of two beds, the 

 uppermost one of a hard and compact kind, quarried and used 

 for building purposes, and the lower one of a much softer 

 description, known by the name of " rotten bruckram." At 

 first I was inclined to think that there was but one bed, and 

 that the lower portion of it had been acted upon by water 

 so as to soften it; but from information which I gathered 

 on the spot I am disposed to think that there are two dis- 

 tinct beds. 



Their thickness, so far as I could estimate it, would be as 

 follows, viz. : — 



Ft. In. 



Hard bruckram, used for building 16 



Soft rotten bruckram 12 



28 



Both these beds lie nearly level, the dip of the first in 

 Stenkreth quarry, near the bridge, being from 7 to 8° to the 

 south-east. They continue to be seen in the river Eden all 

 the way from Stenkreth Bridge to the bridge on the north of 



