85 



find the Kirklinton Sandstone. Ascending the stream, the same 

 rock is seen about as far up as Shield Green, being especially well 

 displayed where the grounds of Kirklinton Hall come down to the 

 river. Between Shield Green and Brackenhill Tower, the under- 

 lying St. Bees Sandstone forms the bed and banks of the Lyne. 

 But, close to Brackenhill Tower, a fault, having a nearly north and 

 south direction, and westerly downthrow, is seen crossing the 

 river-bed, and eastward of it the brick-red rocks disappear, and 

 their place is taken by variously tinted beds of the Carboniferous 

 series. A massive sandstone, which, about a mile above Bracken- 

 hill Tower, forms the " Fairy Tables," suggests, at first sight, either 

 that Permian rock is again appearing, or that we have an exception 

 to the rule as to colour. But here, as elsewhere, stained Carbon- 

 iferous rocks which do not at a first glance show their true affinities 

 beyond a doubt do so on breaking off a good-sized fragment. 

 Then, beneath the perhaps uniformly almost brick-red exterior, 

 purple-grey, or some other tint, is shown to be the colour of the 

 mass. This rock of the "Fairy Tables," however, deserves especial 

 mention, not only on account of its goodness as an example of 

 stained Carboniferous rock, but because there is no river in 

 Cumberland whose beauties as well as geological sections so well 

 deserve a visit, and yet are so little known, as those of the Lyne 

 about Kirkhnton.* 



Lastly, the Hether Burn, a small stream which falls into the 

 Lyne at Cliff Bridge, shows the unconformity between brick-red 

 and purple-grey as well as, or better than, Shawk Beck itself. But 

 this unconformity is about six miles from the nearest railway station, 

 and in a very thinly populated and little visited neighbourhood, 

 that of Hethersgill. If we ascend the Hether Burn from its outfall, 

 we pass from the bright red Kirklinton Sandstone to the duller- 

 tinted Sandstone of St. Bees at Hether Bank Bridge, above which 

 are quarries. Above Howford Bridge the rock is of the flaggy char- 

 acter shown towards the base of the St. Bees Sandstone in Shalk 



* Even the late Professor Harkness, whose knowledge of Cumberland rocks 

 was singularly extensive, paid his first visit to Kirklinton in the summer of 1876. 

 He was mu=h surprised at the beauty and geological interest of the Lyne there. 



