The Permians of the N. W. of England. 73 



N. W. of England where plant remains of true Permian 

 character have been found. The whole section is interesting, 

 as it shews the curious Permian breccias or "brockrams." The 

 plant beds occur at a bend of Hilton Beck, in a wood where 

 there is a good escarpment of red rocks. At the base there 

 is a dark purple soft sandstone, above which are several 

 laminated beds of yellow sandstone, with some seams of 

 almost yellow ochre. The plant beds occur just below 

 these yellow beds, and are in greyish whitish stone, with 

 thin clay partings. The plants are much comminuted, and 

 wholly carbonised, and shew clearly, on the light coloured 

 stone, like black etchings. I was fortunate in obtaining a 

 very representative collection of specimens of truly Permian 

 facies {see Plate II.), including Ulmannia, Walchia, &c, and 

 in a very thin waferlike grey shale parting I found what I 

 take to be Chondrites, which I have not seen noted before, 

 and which agrees, as also do the others, with a figure in 

 Geinitz ' Dyas.' 



Above these beds come a series of yellow sandstones 

 which are much spotted with plant remains, and amongst 

 these occurs the representative of the magnesian limestone. 

 These beds bear a very striking resemblance to those 

 occurring at Barrowmouth,on St. Bees Head, where they yield 

 Schizodus, Bakevillia, and other Permian shells. Here Mr. 

 Goodchild draws the line as the limit of the Permians in the 

 new survey sections at the top of the Magnesian Limestone. 



Above this point came a mass of red marls, which Mr. 

 Goodchild classes with the lower gypseous marls at the 

 base of the Bunter (" Excursion to Edenside," p. 2), and he 

 states that they graduate upwards into the St. Bees sand- 

 stone, which he calls Trias. 



Proceeding up the valley beyond the marls, and on the 

 opposite side of Hilton Beck, there is a sandstone quarry 

 by the road side, a quarter of a mile or so below Hilton 

 Bridge. It shews a face of rock about 30 feet high. The 



