504 G. H. Morton — The Bunter and Keuper near Liverpool. 



Bunter and Keuper, and finally to a great salt lagoon in the age 

 of the Red Marl, expresses the idea generally entertained. The 

 Permian formation was evidently formed during and just after the 

 upheaval of the Coal-measures, and the Trias seems to have origin- 

 ally covered them continuously over South- West Lancashire as it 

 does now about Liverpool. Although the Permian has not been 

 satisfactorily determined in the district, the marine character of 

 the formation is evident from the fossils found at Bedford Leigh 

 twenty miles to the east, and at Collyhurst near Manchester, 

 though they seem stunted in gi-owth as if they had lived in brackish 

 water. 



The Bunter formation is usually supposed to have been deposited 

 in lakes or land-locked seas ; but in the absence of the remains of 

 marine organisms, it is certain that it was not formed in the open 

 sea, and it is difficult to suppose it had any direct communication 

 with it. It seems more probable that it was deposited along the 

 course and formed "the deltas of two large streams, descending 

 respectively from the north-west and north-east, and receiving 

 tributaries from land on either side," as suggested by Prof. Bonney. 

 These streams brought down such an enormous quantity of shifting 

 sand that there was little chance of a plant, shell, or other organism 

 being preserved in the sandstone. The source of the material, how- 

 ever, must have changed during the flow of these supposed Triassic 

 rivers, for there was an alternation in the character of the sediment; 

 firstly, fine-grained sand containing a great proportion of large 

 rounded grains ; secondly, sand with quartz and quartzite pebbles ; 

 thirdly, a fine-grained sand again; and sand and pebbles again finally 

 appeared in the Keuper. It seems doubtful whether the pebbles 

 came from the north of Scotland or from the centre of England, and 

 consequently it is equally uncertain as to the origin of the enormous 

 deposit of sandstone 2350 feet in thickness. The pebbles are said 

 to be most numerous in Staffordshire, and decrease towards the north 

 of Cheshire and Lancashire ; but this seems rather doubtful, for the 

 thickness of the Bunter becomes much greater in that direction and 

 the pebbles more scattered. If the sand and pebbles came from the 

 Midland counties, it is evident that the sand would be carried the 

 furthest, that the pebbles might be gradually left behind, and that 

 few would reach Liverpool. They may, however, have come from 

 Scotland, down what is now the North Channel — a conclusion which 

 seems probable from the great variety of the quartzites. Pebbles 

 and angular fragments of Carboniferous rocks are common and 

 cannot have come any great distance, and it seems probable that 

 much of the sand came from the same source. 



The rounded seed-like grains, like blown sand, have been suggested 

 as indicative of desolate wastes, though this would only apply to 

 the early part of the Bunter, and nothing is really known of the 

 condition of the land bounding the supposed Triassic river, or of 

 the source of the sand. The large smooth grains supposed to have 

 been rounded by the wind are just as likely to have been worn by 

 water, on account of their large size. 



