944 REPORT—1843. 
red sandstone rock, apparently water-worn. No fossil organic remains have 
as yet, to my knowledge, been found in it at Collyhurst. 
2. The lower new red sandstone is composed of a dark red sand, varie- 
gated by patches of a yellowish drab colour. The upper part of it is much 
used for the purpose of iron-moulding, but the lower portion is not fitted for 
such use, owing to nodules of iron occurring in it. Its grains of sand are 
well-rounded, and are composed chiefly of white quartz, with some few pieces 
of jasper, all coloured red by a slight coating of sesquioxide of iron. So uni- 
form in size are the grains, that a pebble as large as a good-sized pea has never 
yet to my knowledge been found in the rock. The thickness of the rock is 
full forty yards, but it has never been thoroughly proved by absolute ad- 
measurement. The main dip is to the S.W. at an angle of 16 to 18 degrees, 
but it has also a considerable inclination to the N.W. 
No fossil remains, either of animals or plants, have to my knowledge been 
found in it. 
The upper parts of the rock bear evident marks of erosion by the water 
which deposited the till. In some places holes two or three feet deep, called 
by the workmen “ posts,” are found in the sandstone filled with till, while at 
other places the surface of the rock is only slightly marked or scooped out. 
3. The coal measures consist of a bed of salmon-coloured argillaceous 
shale, of thirty feet in thickness, containing impressions of ewropterts cordata 
and many common coal plants. Their position in the carboniferous series is 
immediately above the Collyhurst sandstone, and under all the coals which 
have as yet been worked in the Manchester coal field, say about 600 yards 
below the uppermost of the carboniferous strata at Ardwick. Their dip is 
10° east of south, at an angle of 24°. This inclination is not the usual one 
in the adjoining mines of Mr. Buckley, where it is only 18° to the 8.S.W., 
and must be attributed to the fault which has thrown down the coal measures 
at the point of junction with the new red sandstone formation, and now 
forms the trough in which the latter lies. In the collieries above alluded to, 
the coals in their strike abut against, or as the miners express it, are “ cut 
off” by the new red sandstone. 
The chief object for which the excavation was made, was to ascertain the 
condition of the lower new red sandstone, and the coal measures at the 
point of contact. The latter were mixed with the loose sand of the former, 
and the measures, to the depth of three feet, had lost their original laminated 
structure and become homogeneous, presenting the appearance of drift clay, 
so that the absolute line of demarcation of one formation from the other could 
not be determined with any degree of nicety ; their colour was a deep red 
mottled with marks of a dirty yellow; in fact their whole appearance, as well 
as the red and salmon‘colours of the underlying strata to a great depth, seemed 
to show that they had long been exposed to the action of water before they 
were covered up by the sandstone. 
The dip of the two formations does not differ much, that of the coal mea- 
sures being at an angle of 24° to a little east of south, that of the lower new 
red sandstone 17° to the S.W., while the usual dip of the former, the Man- 
chester coal field, is 18° to S.S.W., the latter from 5° to 10° to the S.W. 
The coal measures were partly elevated before the deposition of the new red 
sandstone formation, but it is evident that the latter have been raised by 
forces which have subsequently elevated the coal measures, as the similarity 
of the dip in both strata testifies. 
