The Permians of the N. W. of England. 67 



which it is important to remember in pursuing this subject 

 in its early literature. 



Murchison and Harkness thus affirmed that the tripartite 

 arrangement, which Murchison had insisted on some years 

 before, as existing in parts of Germany, of a lower sand- 

 stone, or Rothliegende, a central limestone or Zechstein, and 

 a connected superior sandstone, is clearly developed in the 

 counties of Westmorland, Cumberland, and Lancashire. 

 Sir Roderick added : " It is with great satisfaction that I 

 state that the conviction of Prof. Harkness and myself upon 

 this point has been also arrived at by the independent 

 researches of my friend E. W. Binney, who, more than 

 anyone of our countrymen, has vigorously and ably 

 explored and brought into order the Permian rocks of 

 the N.W. of England, and has also followed out their 

 relations into Dumfriesshire and adjacent parts of Scotland. 

 Incredulous, in the first instance, as he has assured me, 

 regarding the natural connexion in Britain between the 

 upper sandstone above alluded to, and those fossiliferous 

 shales near Manchester that represent the Magnesian 

 limestone, he has no longer any doubt that — and entirely 

 coincides with us in considering — the sandstones of St. 

 Bees Head, Corby, and other places described in this 

 memoir, are the upper members of the Permian group." Sir 

 R. Murchison then explained " that the transference of 

 these sandstones of St. Bees and Corby to the Permian 

 group is not founded on any evidence of a continuation of 

 a similar type of a fossil fauna or flora, but that it was based 

 on the evidence afforded by clear and unmistakable 

 sections which show that these upper sandstones are 

 connected with the lower sandstone, or Rothliegende, 

 through the intervention of the Magnesian limestone, or its 

 equivalent, and that, thus united, all these strata, from the 

 base to the summit, form a continuous series. In truth, the 

 central, or calcareous, member has alone, as yet, proved to 



