10 
the equivalents of the Kirklinton Sandstone, then they must be 
lower down still, and the total thickness of the sandstone series to 
which the St. Bees Sandstone belongs must be equivalent to the 
thickness seen in Raven Beck plus the thickness seen between the 
highest of the sandstones appearing at Carlisle and the lowest seen 
next to the Maryport fault. But there is no proof anywhere of 
bright red phases occurring on more than one horizon, and that 
horizon is invariably near the top. Therefore the balance of 
evidence is in favour of the Renwick Sandstone and the Kirklinton 
Sandstone being one and the same. The Kirklinton Sandstone is 
universally regarded as of Triassic age; therefore, any rock that 
can be shewn to form the downward continuation of the Kirklinton 
Sandstone, should be regarded as of Triassic age also, if field 
evidence is to be counted as worth anything at all. 
Ravenbeck is almost the only section where the whole of the 
St. Bees Sandstone can be seen. In the section at Helton the 
those next the Pennine Fault, at the 
very highest beds exposed 
Smelt Mill—are not quite half way up in these rocks, the higher 
beds once present there having been removed by denudation. 
The same remark applies to the sandstones at St. Bees Head ; yet, 
strangely enough, it has often been assumed that the highest beds 
remaining at both these localities represent the uppermost of the 
group. The fact is that the full thickness of the St. Bees Sand- 
stone, instead of being 700 feet, as stated again and again in text 
books, is 2000 feet, which, added on to the 300 feet of shales 
below, gives 2300 feet as the aggregate thickness in round num- 
bers of the beds between the. Keuper Marls and the Magnesian 
Limestone. 
Hitherto the name St. Bees Sandstone has been used for only 
the lower sandstones of this series ; but, having regard to the fact 
that rocks of exactly the same type occur on a much higher 
horizon, and graduate upwards into rocks of the Kirklinton Sand- 
stone type, it seems to me that it would simplify geological 
nomenclature very much if we were to group the whole of these 
sandstones, from the marls at the base to the Keuper Marls above, 
as Bunter Sandstone, and to call the lower gypsiferous marls 
