200 Conglomerates underlying the Carboniferous Limestone. 



(c) Ellergill Beck. Entering in at the top of Ellcrgill 

 Beck, the Silurian rocks are well exposed, dipping very steeply 

 south and making well-marked gorges in the plantation south- 

 east of Gill Hole. At the point in the beck directly north-east 

 of Gill Hole the junction is displayed and the unconformity 

 can be well seen. The Silurian rocks are overlain first by 

 about one foot of red sandstone, and then by fairly coarse 

 conglomerate, several feet in thickness, the pebbles in which 

 average 3 in. across. Further downstream these conglomer- 

 ates are overlain by red sandstones dipping lightly N. 10° E. 

 These sandstones form the bed of the stream, save for two 

 bands of conglomerate as marked on map, until below the 

 farm the exposures are hidden by stream deposits of pebbles. 

 In this beck, therefore, the sandstones contain interbedded 

 bands of conglomerate, some of appreciable thickness. 



An interesting study in this beck is the nature of the 

 junction between the Silurian rocks and the overlying red 

 beds. The surface of the slates is not smooth, but jagged, as 

 roughly broken slates would be. and the red deposits have 

 filled in every little corner. The slates are stained red for 

 some distance inwards, and the rock material at the junction 

 is a petrological study in itself. It cannot be dealt with 

 at this stage. 



[d] Langdale Beck. Under the small bridge by the village 

 red sandstones are exposed dipping 10° N. 15° E., and at a point 

 about 300 yards above this bridge the junction with the 

 Silurian rocks is well marked. They are here overlain by 

 about five feet of fairl}' coarse conglomerate. From this 

 point to the bridge above mentioned red sandstones are well 

 displayed with a few interbedded bands of red conglomerate. 



It seems, therefore, that towards the east, bands of con- 

 glomerate intrude in the sandstones, but it would not be safe 

 to say that these conglomerate bands are absent from the 

 three small gills west of Ellergill Beck. The exposures in 

 these becks are too few to make such a generalisation. 



It is desirable to emphasise three points — (i) the case of 

 the probable local unconformit}/ of the green series in the red 

 in Birk Beck ; (2) the natural passage from the red beds 

 into the limestone shown in Micklegill Beck and Chapel 

 Beck ; and (3) the greater dex'elopment of red sandstones 

 in this area than in the Sedbergh area. The first point is 

 quite natural in such deposits. It seems that they must have 

 been in the first place flood deposits, such as are laid down in 

 certain semi-desert regions of the earth in periods of torrential 

 rains at the present time. These deposits, washed down from 

 the hillsides, have then been redistributed to a certain extent, 

 probably by river agency, possibly in some cases by sea, and 

 the component pebbles have at this stage become rounded. 



Naturalist 



