173 



I was for a short time in Gloucester * * and saw I think, Salter, * * 

 told me the news. 



I cannot be surprised at the news * * It was not to * * that the great 

 group, but was the Skiddaw Slate, and the Coniston Limestone must somewhere 

 contain fossils. * * * almost the last time I was among the Tiake moun- 

 tains I found, about one or two hundred feet under the Coniston group at the 

 S.W. end of Cumberland, some traces of fossils, evidently common Coniston 

 forms, but very imperfect ; perhaps I overrated the thickness of the beds under 

 the limestone band. At that spot the Coniston Limestone is much altered, and 

 the beds both above it and below it are of the green colour of the great lower 

 group, which I think led Sharpe to doubt if it was Coniston Limestone ; that 

 if it was Coniston Limestone * * easy to say that this was the case generally 

 that it was anything more than a slight expansion of the calcareous slates of the 

 Coniston group. I am told that your fossils^ are far deeper seated in the Green 

 Slate series. * * person told me * * about twenty years since. If I 

 mistake, not Charles Wright of Keswick was my informant that Murton Pike 

 was Skiddaw Slate. Are you are aware that Buckland and Greenhough gave a 

 description of the porphyritic pikes? (see an old vol. of the Geol. Trans., 4to. )^ 

 But they knew nothing of the fossils or of the Old Slate group. 



Your section is most interesting. The fault you have drawn is on a magnifi- 

 cent scale, especially interesting * * * Fossils. I shall be thankful for any 

 good specimens you can send for our museum. I never had a private collection, 

 I shunned the temptation of making one. 



Again, the discovery of the fish beds of the Magnesian Limestone is an 

 excellent hit. I have maps here, but must not fatigue myself by consulting 

 them J so I cannot refer to any locality. In 1834 I traced the boundary of the 

 hard sandstone^ from Temple Sowerby to Brough along with a friend. We 

 saw, at a distance, the group of your grand section, but they were not our 

 object. In this area of the New Red Sandstone (down the vale of the Eden to 

 the Solway) we there have, from your description (i) the Marl Fish Slate and 

 other shales of the Magnesian Limestone group ; (2) the 'flaggy red beds of the 

 Bunter Sandstein * ; (3) Gypseous Marls ^ ; (4) Lias. Nos. 3 and 4 I have 

 never seen, but there they are. And how are we to draw the line to cut off 

 the beds that are palteozoic ? 



1 proved many a long year since that the fossils of the Magnesian Limestone 

 group were essentially palaeozoic. But physically the group seemed part of the 

 New Red. So the matter stood. I suggested no change of correlation. So a 

 year afterwards Phillips proposed (at the Geological Society) that we should 



I This refers to the Style End Grassing Beds. 



2 Description of an insulated Group of Slate and Greenstone in Cumberland and Westmor- 

 land, at the East Side of Appleby, between Melmerby and Murton. 



3 Penritb Sandstone. 4 St. Bees Sandstone. 5 Stanwix Marls (J.G.G.) 



