Ill 



and qualities, and the mineral character of their associated rocks, 

 as also the important consideration whether these are expanding 

 or contracting. Looked at in this more general way, Mr. Holmes 

 will find his correlation untenable. There is one obvious error in 

 in it, even supposing his mode of procedure be admitted. The dark 

 shale band in Aspatria No. 3 Pit which he correlates with the 

 Rattler band of Bullgill, is, if it corresponds with any seam in the 

 Lower Measures, rather the correlative of the Slaty band of that 

 place — a seam which there occurs below the Rattler band. This 

 is best seen by passing from the section at Bullgill to that at 

 Brayton Domain first, and then on to Aspatria. With this important 

 amendment Mr. Holmes' Ten Quarters seam at Aspatria becomes 

 the Rattler band, so that he would have to take the next seam 

 higher for his Ten Quarters, and that is a seam which is still more 

 unlike the real Ten Quarters than the one he has already fixed 

 upon. Moreover, the general section at Aspatria, from this new 

 Ten Quarters down to the thirty inch coal, is so unlike that at 

 Bullgill, as to make it most improbable that they are equivalent 

 parts of the Coalfield; so much so in fact that unless some evidence 

 of the transition from one section to the other could be produced 

 from an intermediate position, I should, irrespective of other 

 considerations, most unhesitatingly reject such a supposition. 



But to return to the Whitehaven Sandstone series. The remarks 

 of Mr. Holmes relative to the occurrence of purple-grey rocks 

 outside the area embraced in my paper are altogether beside the 

 question. The conclusions drawn by me from the study of a 

 particular district are not intended to have a general application, 

 and therefore I must decline to follow Mr. Holmes when he 

 proceeds to test my conclusions in any such way, especially when 

 he employs for that purpose negative evidence only. 



If the purple-grey colour of the rocks in the neighbourhood of 

 Aspatria and Mealsgate, etc., which I include in the Whitehaven 

 Sandstone series is due to Permian staining, as held by Mr. 

 Holmes, I suppose it will be generally admitted that the White- 

 haven Sandstone proper, that is, the rock of that name which 

 occurs in the neighbourhood of Whitehaven, was tinted in the 



