68 Mr. Brockbank on 



be really fossiliferous, certain footsteps only having been 

 found in the lower sandstone." 



The Permian system, as thus laid down by Sir R. Mur- 

 chison and Prof. Harkness, in 1864, has been accepted by 

 geologists almost up to the present time, when, by the 

 intervention of Mr. J. G. Goodchild, of the Geological Survey, 

 the upper member of the group is again relegated to the 

 Trias, and one of the newest maps of the survey is published 

 with the upper member of the Permian described as Triassic. 



Mr. Goodchild's section, which is now exhibited by the 

 kindness of Mr. W. Topley, F.R.S., of the Geological Survey, 

 gives the following order of strata as applicable to the Cum- 

 berland and Westmorland district. {See Diagram next page). 



My attention was directed to this question in connection 

 with the paper I communicated to this Society last session, 

 on the section at Frizington Hall, near Whitehaven, where 

 the upper coal measures with Spirorbis limestones had been 

 proved, immediately overlaid by the Permian breccia ; and 

 near thereto the St. Bees sandstone. I had also traced 

 these Permian rocks to the east of the Whitehaven Coal 

 Field, resting high up on the Silurians of Dent and Copeland 

 Forest, near Calder Abbey and Gosforth. Before resuming 

 the study of these Permian strata in West Cumberland, 

 I was wishful to examine the sections in Westmorland, 

 where similar strata were lifted high up the flanks of the 

 Crossfell range ; and more particularly the complete typical 

 section at Hilton Beck, where the plant remains were 

 acknowledged to be undoubtedly Permian. 



As the Geological Survey map of the district was not 

 yet published, I wrote to Mr. Topley for information, and he 

 kindly sent me down a plan, section, and draft memoir, 

 giving the survey and results in that district. I was 

 astonished to find that the surveyors had abandoned the 

 arrangement, settled by Sir R. Muchison, in 1864, and again 

 by Sir A. Ramsay, the Director in 1881, and that the St. 



