80 SEVENTH REPORT—1837. 
unconformable both with the magnesian limestone and with the red 
sandstone strata at Bedford, in South Lancashire. 
The beds of coal on the east, the north, and the north-west of Man- 
chester, are inclined towards the west, the south-west, and the south, 
being probably elevated from a horizontal position by the force with 
which the gritstone hills behind them were raised to their present 
position. 
A grand series of parallel faults traverses the eastern portion of the 
South Lancashire coal district in a north-westerly direction, and of these 
the principal fault, which has been already mentioned, as the Red-rock 
Fault of the valley of the Irwell, is visible between Clifton and Ringley 
on the bed of the river Irwell, about six miles to the north-west of Man- 
chester. In this locality, the precise direction of the Red-rock Fault 
has been ascertained to be N.W. by W.; and in the line of the fault, 
a considerable number of rectangular prisms of sandstone belonging to 
the coal formation are distinctly visible, symmetrically arranged in a 
vertical position, or steeply inclined, as if suddenly elevated. On the 
western side of the fault, at Clifton, the sandstones of the coal measures 
dip 10° to the S.S.W., and on the eastern side the red sandstone strata 
are nearly horizontal, or dip slightly to the $.S.W., thus showing nearly 
the same inclination of the strata on each side of the Red-rock Fault of 
the Irwell. 
The occurrence of the Red-rock Fault has occasioned a very remark- 
able displacement of the beds of coal in the valley of the Irwell, near 
Manchester. On the western side of the fault, the highest beds of coal 
in the carboniferous series of South Lancashire are worked, and the 
lower mines successively crop out between Manchester and Bolton, 
while the higher mines of the coal series are worked on the eastern 
side of the fault. If the level of the four-foot coal mine, one of the 
highest mines in the series, be traced from Worsley to the Red-rock 
Fault, it will be found that at Worsley the four-foot mine encounters 
a considerable fault of 400 yards, which changes its level to a more 
northerly position. A second fault, of 600 yards, again removes the 
level of the four-foot mine further north, and the level of the mine 
ranges towards the south-east as far as Pendleton. On the eastern side 
of the Red-rock Fault the level of the four-foot mine is found at Ring- 
ley, and the continuation of this level meets the Red-rock Fault near 
the junction of the Irwell and the Tong rivers. 
At Ratcliffe Bridge another fault, parallel to the great Red-rock Fault, 
crosses under the course of the river Irwell, and at Blackford Bridge, 
on the same river, another parallel fault occurs, accompanied with red 
sandstone rock, which is again succeeded by the ordinary coal measures. 
North of Bury, at Brandlesholme, on the river Irwell, two pa- 
rallel faults have been observed ranging near to each other, and 
parallel in their north-westerly direction to the great Red-rock Fault of 
the district. Above the first fault, at Brandlesholme, the inclination 
of the dark ferruginous shales is 14° or 15° N.E. by E., and, below the 
fault, sandstone strata succeed, with an inclination of 50° south. 
Beyond the dark ferruginous shales, sandstone strata occur, inclined, 
