TllANSACXIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 81 



On the ProhabilUi/ of finding Coal in the Eastern Counties. 

 By the Rev. John Guxn. 



This paper was supplementary to one read at the Brighton Meeting upon the 

 same subject, in which the author dwelt principally on the evidence of repeated 

 successive elevations and depressions in the Anglo-Belgian basin since the Car- 

 boniferous epoch ; and he thence inferred that similar depressions may be ex- 

 pected to have occurred during it, when the coal may have been deposited in 

 troughs and hollows, and have escaped subsequent denudations. The author dwelt 

 upon the westerly upheaval of the beds .wliich has brought the whole of the 

 Cretaceous rocks to the surface and has exposed the Kimmeridge clay near Lynn 

 and Hunstanton; he therefore thought that the Coal-measures, if present at all, of 

 which he felt very sanguine, would be reached at a less depth there than else- 

 where. 



The author would not propose to press the boring in the west of Norfolk in 

 preference to that proposed by Mr. Godwin-Austen in the south of Essex ; but 

 when the latter is completed, he will have no doubt of raising the necessary 

 funds if the site which he proposes be approved by geologists. 



On the Occurrence of Faults in the Permian ItocJcs of the loiver ^wrtion of the 

 Vale of the Eden, Cumberland. By Professor Haekness, F.B.S., F.G.S. 



The Permian rocks occupying the vale of the Eden have their southern limit 

 at Kirkb}' Stephen in Westmoreland ; thence they extend, over the more level 

 country through which the river flows, to near Carlisle. . 



The strilce of these Permian rocks from Kirkby Stephen to near Armathwaite is 

 nearly N.N.W. and S.S.E. They consist of : — first and lowest, light red-coloured 

 sandstones very false-bedded (Penrith sandstones) ; second, red clays having 

 gypsum frequently associated with them — and in one instance, near Hilton in 

 Westmoi-eland, light drab shales with plant-remains (marl slate), and a limestone 

 at their base ; the third member of the series is composed of fine-grained dark 

 red sandstones, very regularly bedded with red claj's intercalated in them. 



Had these Permian rocks followed their ordinary strike along the whole of 

 the vale of the Eden, the gypsiferous red clays would have crossed the river a 

 short distance above Armathwaite liridge. They do not, however, occur in the 

 bed of the river near this spot, although rocks are hero abundantly exposed — 

 the last spot where they have been recognized with their ordinary strike being 

 at Cross Ilouse near Ruckcroft, about three miles south of Armathwaite. 



The area where they might have been expected to occur in the neighbour- 

 hood of Annathwaite, is occupied b_v the underlying Penrith sandstones ; and these 

 spread themselves eastwards into the parish of Ainstable, into a district in which 

 the Upper Permian rocks (the Corby sandstones) would have been seen had the 

 range of these rocks been such as is exhibited in the vale of the Eden south of 

 Armathwaite. 



The great development of the Penrith sandstones at Armathwaite and Ain- 

 stable, and the absence here of the gypsiferous clays and overlying Corby sand- 

 stones, the author regards as resulting from a fault having a nearly S. W. and N.E. 

 course, with an upthrow on the N.W. side. 



Still further down the Eden there are seen, in consequence of a cutting re- 

 cently made at Eden Brows on the Carlisle and Settle Railway, exposing the rocks, 

 strata of purplish white sandstones having interbedded gi-ey shales. These sand- 

 stones and shales appertain to the Carboniferous formation ; and their occurrence 

 here appears to result from another fault, which has also an upthrow on the N.W. 

 side. The position of these sandstones and shales in the Carboniferous series can- 

 not be well made out at Eden Brows. There are, however, exposures of Carboni- 

 ferous rocks (which seem to result from the influence of the same fault) a fdw miles 

 t« the west ; and these Carboniferous rocks belong to the lower portion of the group. 



Immediately north of Eden Brows the Permian rocks are again seen. As they 

 occur on the east side of the river, in Fishgard Wood, they consist of the higher 



1873. 6 



