When writing a short note last year, on " Coal Measures below 

 the New Red Sandstone," for No. 8 of Transactions, it occurred 

 to me that the subject was one that might be treated at somewhat 

 greater length on this occasion. Under any circumstances, how- 

 ever, this matter is not one that can be discussed in much detail, 

 inasmuch as the available facts bearing upon it are few in number, 

 and such as allow us to draw but vague conclusions from them. 

 One great hindrance to full and definite knowledge consists of the 

 thick covering of Glacial Drift which spreads alike over Coal 

 Measures and Permian rocks, and allows but of the most scanty 

 and imperfect observation of either at the surface, even in river 

 valleys, or along the sea shore. One result of this drift covering 

 in north-west Cumberland that may be noted here is, that some 

 beds of gypseous shales, known from borings to reach a thickness of 

 of about seven hundred feet at Kelsick Moss, near Abbey Town, 

 and half that thickness at Bowness-on-Solway, nowhere appear at 

 the surface at all. Their existence, in short, would be utterly 

 unknown and unsuspected but for the borings that have revealed 

 it. In addition, the Kelsick Moss boring disclosed the fact that 

 instead of the thirty or forty feet of drift that might have been 

 expected, there were no less than two hundred feet. The Permian 

 (St. Bees) Sandstone is seen south of Kelsick Moss, about Aspatria 

 and Brayton, to be dipping towards the Solway. On the north, 

 about Aniian, it is also dipping towards the Solway, or in the 

 reverse direction. Nothing but Glacial Drift is seen above the 

 St. Bees Sandstone either north or south of Kelsick Moss. Conse- 

 quently all that surface observations could warrant us in predicting 

 at Kelsick Moss would be the presence of St. Bees Sandstone 

 below about forty or perhaps fifty feet of Glacial Drift. Yet the 

 top of the St. Bees Sandstone was reached not at a depth of forty, 

 but of nearly nine hundred and forty feet. 



Then, again, now that the existence of these Gypseous Shales 

 is made known to us by borings, we are still prevented by the 

 presence of superficial beds at the surface from being able to 

 ascertain their lateral extent. We do indeed see that the St. Bees 

 Sandstone is uncovered by Gypseous Shales in a belt of- country 



