430 Correspondence. 
not in the least affect the question of the Triassic age of the Lan- 
cashire Pebble-beds. ‘ 
As regards these latter, which consist of brownish-red sandstones, 
with pebbles of coloured quartz scattered throughout their mass, 
there has never been any question even amongst the most ardent 
Philo-Permianists; and they have been correctly described as 
Triassic by Ormerod, Binney, and all other good geologists who 
have examined the country. An experience of some twelve years in 
working out the Triassic and Permian formations of the midland 
and north-western counties enables me to confirm their views. 
These Pebble-beds are the equivalents of the quartz-ore Conglo- 
merates of the central counties, which frequently constitute the only 
representatives of the Bunter Sandstone; and if they are not of 
Triassic age, then there is no Lower Trias in England, or in Europe, 
or indeed anywhere; and the Permian Empire must spread its 
broad egis far beyond its present bounds! This, however, is out of 
the question. The Pebble-beds, and the Lower Red and Mottled 
Sandstone, which form the lowest division of the Bunter, lie dis- 
cordantly with reference to the Permian Beds throughout ; and, in 
the neighbourhood of Manchester, any conformity which may exist 
is only local and accidental. Discordance is the rule, the reverse 
the exception, all along the margin of the South Lancashire Coal- 
field; and if Mr. Hamilton will come down here, I shall be very 
happy to show him that the Pebble-beds cannot ‘turn out to belong 
to the Permian series.’ —I am, Sir, faithfully yours, Hpwarp HULL. 
GxrotocicaL Survey or Great Brirain, 
Mancuester: August_3, 1866. 
To the Editor of the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 
Srr,—With reference to a short paper on a supposed ‘ Pre-Cam- 
brian Island,’ read by me at the British Association last year, and 
inserted in your Magazine for December last, I have to beg you to 
apply acaveat. I did not, I hope, speak at all dogmatically on the 
point to which I could give but a very moderate degree of attention; 
but knowing of how great interest the fragments of old Pre-Cambrian 
land are to geologists, I did try to draw some of my friends who 
have the leisure to that neglected locality, St. David’s. The result 
has justified my endeavour, if it has not turned out exactly as I 
could have wished. The Rev. W. 8S. Symonds and the Rey. H. H. 
Winwood, of Bath, visited the spot this year, attracted by this notice, 
and they saw some reason to doubt the correctness of the suggestion 
I made—‘that the Syenite-ridge of St. David’s was a portion of 
the old land of which the Hebrides, parts of the north-west coast of 
Ireland, and the Malverns, are fragments.’ 
My supposition has now been tested by the close observation of 
my friends just mentioned, and my colleague, Mr. H. Hicks. Like 
myself, Mr. Hicks at first paid far more attention to the fossiliferous 
beds above the Cambrian, than to the metamorphic or igneous rocks 
at their base. But his keen eye and good hammer, once turned to 
