THE AGE OF THE PENINE CHAIN. 



I now proceed to the consideration of the evidence I have been able to 

 gather together in favour of a pre-Permian upheaval. 



I. The great Yorkshire Coal Basin was evidently formed before the 

 commencement of the Permian epoch ; for, all along the eastern borders 

 of the exposed portion of this coallield, wherever the coal measure 

 strata are seen to pass under the Magnesian Limestone, the easterly dip 

 of the coal measures is, more or less, evidently greater than that of the 

 Permians. Now, as the north and south axis of the Yorkshire Coalfield 

 Synclinal runs parallel with the axis of the Penine Chain Anticlinal, 

 we may safely infer that these had a common origin, consequently the 

 Penine Chain is also pre-Permian. In the magnificent sections recently 

 opened out by the railway extensions at Kimberley, near Nottingham, 

 you may see the Middle Coal Measures dipping north-east at angles 

 varying from 5° to 10° or 15° beneath Permian, (Marl Slates and Lower 

 Magnesian Limestone,) that dip east at about 1°. In consequence of this 

 greater inclination of the coal measures, any particular seam of coal is 

 found at constantly increasing depths going east. The " Top Hard" or 

 Barnsley Seam, for instance, which at Kimberley is only 284ft. below the 

 Permian base, is 630ft. beneath the same horizon at Cinderhill, two 

 miles to the east. Again, the same coal at Clowne is 890ft. deep, but at 

 Steetley, which lies about three miles further east, it is 1,590ft. down to 

 it. " All along the edge of the escarpment of the Magnesian Limestone," 

 says Professor Hull, " and for a short distance beyond, in Notts and 

 Derbyshire, as far north as Rotherham, the coal seams are found to dip 

 eastward at a greater angle than the limestone itself, which (with the 

 Lower Red Sandstone) rests unconformably on the coal measures." 



II. The Marl Slates, a series of blue thin-bedded argillaceous and 

 dolomitic sandstones and shales that come beneath the Lower Magnesian 

 Limestone, attenuate slowly but surely in a westerly direction, as if 

 approaching a mai'gin. In some recent unsuccessful explorations for 

 coal in Lincolnshire, (South Scarle, between Newark aud Lincoln,) the 

 Permians proved to be much more developed than in West Notts. Under 

 Lincolnshire the Lower Magnesian Limestone and Marl Slates together 

 amount to about 220ft. in thickness, at Bestwood to 95ft., at Kimberley 

 to from 53ft. to 33ft., while west of the Erewash no Permians are found, 

 and Triassic rocks repose directly on various members of the car- 

 boniferous formation. 



HI. Coincidently with this attenuation of the Marl Slates the Lower 

 Magnesian Limestone becomes intermingled with sedimentary materials 

 on the west. Though no thicker on the east than on the west the 

 Lower Magnesian Limestone is a very different rock. Under Lincoln- 

 shire it is a pure cream-coloured compact limestone, while on the west 

 it is instead a coarse granular dolomite, interleaved with seams of marl 

 and micaceous sand, and may become gritty and even conglomeratic. 

 These phenomena would seem to indicate the shallowing of the waters 

 and the vicinity of land on the west in the Zechstein epoch. 



IV. Mountain Limestone pebbles are said to have been found in 

 Permian rocks on the east, and certainly occur in Permian breccias on 



