LOW FUllNESS, LANCASHIRE. 429 



Bardsea, on towards Barrow Head, and the other 

 from the neighbourhood of the last named place, 

 running nearly north and north-westward, up to 

 beyond Dalton, also occupied by the new red sand- 

 stone. 



The quality of the rock, as a building stone, 

 especially that found in the vicinity of Furness 

 Abbey, is far superior to its general character for 

 durability, as many of the stones of that venerable 

 ruin, built about the year 1130, exhibit scarce any 

 symptoms of decay. Some of the stone com- 

 prising the mouldings and ornamental parts of 

 the building, no doubt bears evident marks of 

 the ravages of time ; but this was to have been 

 expected, as scarcely any of our best sandstones 

 used for building purposes, will endure the test 

 of exposure for seven hundred years, in such 

 exposed positions. The builders of our old 

 religious houses, appear not only to have been 



posit overlies a bed of the latter, whicli has been separated 

 from it and thrown down. But it may be argued with equal 

 probability, that the limestone under the sandstone is in its 

 original position, while the limestone on which there is now no 

 sandstone has been raised, the sides of the dislocation giving 

 no such evidences of the fault being " up or down" as are seen 

 in the smaller dislocations in the coal measures. 



