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ON THE BEST LOCALITY FOR COAL 



BENEATH THE PERMIAN ROCKS OF NORTH WEST 



CUMBERLAND. 



By J. D. KENDALL, C.E., F.G.S. 



(Read at the Bowness Annual Meeting. J 



In the latest number (IX.) of the Transactions, there is a commu 

 nication by Mr. T. V. Holmes, bearing the above title, in which 

 appear several criticisms of a paper of mine on " The Structure of 

 the Cumberland Coalfield," which was read about two years ago 

 before the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical 

 Engineers. Mr. Holmes' criticisms are directed against that part 

 of the paper which deals with the formation known as the 

 Whitehaven Sandstone. That formation, as you may know, is 

 unconformable to the main body of the Coal Measures. It was 

 first studied in the neighbourhood of Whitehaven, where most, if 

 not all, its visible outcrops are mainly of a sandy nature, whence 

 its name — Whitehaven Sandstone. 



In my study of the Coalfield generally, I arrived at the con- 

 clusion that the formation in its north-easterly extension becomes 

 somewhat modified, but that by taking the purple-grey colour 

 which characterises it near Whitehaven as a guide, we are able to 

 mark out its extent with considerable accuracy, although other 

 considerations are necessary to determine its downward limit 

 exactly, as pointed out by me in Vol. 33, Part IV., of the 

 " Transactions of the North of England Institute of Mining and 

 Mechanical Engineers." 



Mr. Holmes says that "mere tint itself, without specific evidence 



