The Peri u tans of the N.W. of England. 7$. 



whatever that the whole series are Permian, right up to the 

 Pennine fault, and thus the St. Bees sandstone is proved to 

 be Permian and not Triassic. Drawings of all these plant 

 remains have been submitted to Prof. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., 

 and to Mr. Goodchild, F.G.S., who agree in considering them 

 of Permian facies. 



This is the last exposure of red rocks, and occurs some 

 50 yards below the Old Hilton Smelt Mill. Just beyond 

 it the great Pennine fault crosses Hilton Beck, Silurian 

 rocks being seen crossing the stream tilted at a high angle ; 

 and here we come upon the Cross Fell inlier described by 

 Professor Nicholson and Mr. Marr in the Quarterly fournal 

 of the Geological Society, November 2nd, 1891. 



It will thus be seen that the whole series of rocks from 

 the Ashgill beds to the Smelt Mill are undoubtedly Permian. 

 It has been suggested that as this is a district of great 

 disturbance, the recurrence of the plant beds may be the 

 result of faults which may have brought in again the Hilton 

 plant beds, but this is almost an impossibility. The beds 

 are not the same bed, but are one series. The sequence was 

 mapped by Prof. Harkness, and his accuracy has not since 

 been questioned, and has been confirmed by the geological 

 survey. It is quite clear also that no faults could alter their 

 Permian character, as proved by the fossils. Although 

 Harkness did not discover the fossils in these uppermost 

 beds, he called them Permian from other observations. 



Mr. James Eccles, F.G.S., read a paper to the Geological 

 Society of Manchester in 1874, describing the Bela Valley 

 section a few miles to the south where similar red rocks 

 occur, and there he found a plant bed as already stated. 

 I forwarded the drawings of the Hilton plants to Mr. Eccles, 

 and he says they agree with what he saw in the Bela 

 Valley 20 years ago, only they were too fragmentary to be 

 particularly recognized. I think, therefore, we may safely 

 say that the sandstones from Bela to Hilton arc thus proved 

 to be Permian. 



