406 T. V. Eolmcs— The Whitehaven Sandstone. 



ago, my colleagues and I bad gradually learned from experience, 

 that where junctions between these formations occurred, the reddish 

 or purple-grey Cai'boniferous tints were always distinguishable from 

 the more brick-red colour of the other series. On the other hand, 

 it was found that there was no hue distinctive of any particular 

 Carboniferous horizon, and that the position in the series of highly- 

 coloured Carboniferous rocks in any locality could be learned only 

 from tbe careful study of that and adjacent districts. 1 



In the cliffs on each side of tbe harbour at Whitehaven there 

 is a mass of purple-grey rock, mainly sandstone, which lies with 

 a certain amount of unconformity on the beds beneath. This 

 appearance of unconformity, visible to every geological visitor, 

 bas necessarily excited much attention, and the affinities of the 

 Whitehaven Sandstone, as it has been called for more than half 

 a century, bave been much discussed. For as it differs in colour 

 from the beds on which it rests, and is also somewhat unconformable 

 to them, it was by the earlier writers generally classed with the 

 Permian-Triassic rather than tbe Carboniferous rocks. For example, 

 I may mention that the late Matthias Dunn, in a paper on tbe 

 Coalfields of Cumberland, published in vol. viii, Trans. North Eug. 

 Inst. Min. Engineers (1859-60), calls it tbe " Lower Eed Sand- 

 stone," to distinguish it from the Upper Eed (or St. Bees) Sandstone, 

 and remarks that they are usually divided by a bed of magnesian 

 limestone. And as a result of looking at this and other rocks of 

 similar colour as Permian he shows in the map illustrating bis 

 paper, Permian-Triassic rocks spreading eastward of Aspatria as 

 far southward as the source of Shalk Beck, and about a mile 

 north of the junction of the Caldbeck with the Caldew. A large 

 area, widening eastward from Aspatria till it attains a breadth of 

 more than three miles at Shalk Beck and tbe Cardew, was thus 

 once classed as Permian-Triassic, which is now admitted to be 

 Carboniferous. 2 



At the present day, however, there is no dispute as to which of 

 the two formations just mentioned the Whitehaven Stone belongs. 

 Such differences of opinion as now exist are as to whether Mr. J. D. 

 Kendall has or bas not satisfactorily identified as Whitehaven 

 Sandstone certain I'ocks at various places in and beyond the limits 

 of the West Cumberland Coalfield. Mr. Kendall, who has written 

 much on this subject during tbe past fifteen years, thus describes 

 tbe Whitehaven Sandstone in his latest paper, which was read 

 before North of Eng. Inst. Min. and Mecb. Engineers in October, 

 1895, and has since been published in the Trans. Fed. Inst. Min. 

 Engineers. His opening paragraph is as follows : — 



1 My own experience in various parts of North Cumberland is given in a short 

 paper " On the distinctive colours of the Carboniferous and Permian or Triassic 

 (Poikilitic) Rocks of North Cumberland " : Trans. Cumb. Assoc, part vii (1881-2), 

 p. 79. 



2 Having spoken of the sandstone at Eosegill, near Bullgill railway-station, as 

 " "Whitehaven Sandstone" in the paper on the distinctive colours of the Carboniferous 

 and Permian-Triassic rocks already mentioned, it may be well to say that I did so 

 ou Dunn's authority, not as the result of my own investigations. 



