238 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [mAR. 15, 



Considerable light has been thrown upon these by the construc- 

 tion of a new line of railway along the eastern outskirts of Man- 

 chester in 1890-91. The succession of beds belonging to the 

 Upper Coal Measures was exposed, as well as their junction with 

 the Permian. Full details of the sections are to be found In 

 papers of C, Roeder, C. E. DeRance and J. W. Brockbank.* 



The series as a whole consists of reddish mottled clays, shales 

 .and sandstones, with thin bands of limestone. 



At Ardwick, near the center of the coal field and in the rail- 

 way section to the south, twelve beds of limestone are shown, the 

 total thickness in the former case being 29 feet, in the latter 21 

 feet 4 inches. 



The general dip is southwest, the lowest members of the 

 series cropping in the northeast of the district, and being suc- 

 ceeded regularly by others until the thin limestones of the upper 

 part come in along the southwest border. 



Below the lowest limestone are about 200 yards of strata under 

 which the following section was obtained at the Bradford Col- 

 liery, f 



Bradford and Clayton Coal Series. 



Ft. In. 



Openshaw Mine 3 



Strata about 135 



Charlotte Mine 2 



Strata 210 



TJiree Quarter 3Iine 1 7 



Strata 15 



Four Feet Mine 3 10 



Strata 108 



Yard 3Iine >^-l 



Strata 210 



Two Feet Coal 2 



Strata 120 



Coal 10 



The total thickness will not fall far short of 2,000 feet. 



All the seams have now been worked out, but twenty years 

 ago several collieries were busily engaged. 



It must not be supposed however, that the coal field is exhaus- 

 ted, for underneath the 2,000 feet of Upper Measures is a rich 

 Middle Series similar to that of Oldham, Ashton-under-Lyne and 

 Dukinfield, and it is very probable that these will eventually be 

 sought for and mined. 



*Trans. Maneh. Geol. Soc, Vol. XXI., 1890-1-2, and Proc. Literary and Philosophioa 

 Society of Manchester for the same year. 



t Memoirs Geol. Survey. Geology of Country around Oldham, including Manches- 

 ter and its suburbs, 1864, p. 35. 



