its Permo-Triassic Sequence. 249 



There is no evidence apart from the identification from the two 

 hores of the presence of St. Bees Sandstone in Cumberland anywhere 

 to the north of that band ; and the probabilities seem to me in favour 

 of its absence. On the north of the Solway the St. Bees Sandstone 

 extends as far west as Annan ; but the Redkirk bore shows that the 

 only known beds on the southern side of that area of St. Bees 

 Sandstone are Lower Carboniferous Sandstone. There is no trace of 

 the St. Bees Sandstone to the west of Annan ; the rocks of the Penrith 

 Sandstone group reach the northern shore of the Solway at Caer- 

 lave rock ; and south of the coast of Dumfries in this area a band of 

 Carboniferous rocks, covered by sea and drifts, probably connects 

 the Carboniferous outcrop at Arbigland with tbat of Ruth well. 

 These Carboniferous rocks may be covered to the south by Penrith 

 Sandstone or by the Gypseous Shales, and the natural rock to find 

 beneath the Gypseous Shales at Bowness and Abbeytown is the 

 Penrith Sandstone. 



As the St. Bees Sandstone does not occur north of the Solway 

 further west than Annan, there is no improbability in that formation 

 not extending as far west as Bowness or Abbeytown on the southern 

 side. The assumption of a sheet of St. Bees Sandstone under North- 

 Western Cumberland, north of the Wigton-Allonby outcrop, appears 

 to me improbable. 



Summary of Conclusions. 



The occurrence, as shown by the Redkirk bore, of the Carboniferous 

 rocks near the surface on the northern shore of the eastern Solway, 

 and the identification of the red rocks at the bottom of the Abbeytown 

 bore as Penrith Sandstone, render unnecessary either the assumption 

 of the existence of the Upper Gypseous Shales or the view that the 

 Stanwix Shales are the continuation of the Gypseous Shales of the 

 Abbeytown and Bowness bores. Thereby is removed the chief 

 difficulty in the interpretation of the geology of North- Western 

 Cumberland and the Solway Firth. 



Beferences. 



BlNNEY (E. W.). 1865. Further Observations on the Carboniferous, Permian, 

 and Triassic Strata of Cumberland and Dumfries: Mem. Lit. Phil. Soc. 

 Manchester, ser. Ill, vol. ii, pp. 343-88. (Bead 1863.) 



Holmes (T. V.). 1881. " The Permian, Triassic, and Liassic Eocks of the 

 Carlisle Basin " : Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xxxvii, pp. 286-98, pi. xi. 



1889. "The Geology of North-West Cumberland ": Proc. Geol. Assoc, 



vol. xi, pp. 231-57, 2 maps. 



1899. The Geology of the Country around Carlisle : Mem. Geol. Surv. 



England and Wales, iv, 64 pp. 



Peach (B. N.) & Hokne (J.). 1903. " The Canonbie Coalfield : its Geological 

 Structure and Belations to the Carboniferous Bocks of the North of 

 England and Central Scotland": Trans. Boy. Soc. Edinburgh, vol. xl, 

 pp. 835-77, 4 pis., 1905. 



Singer (Dr.). 1812. General View of the Agriculture, State of Property, 

 and Improvements, in the County of Dumfries : drawn up under the 

 Direction of the Board of Agriculture, and at the Bequest of the Land- 

 holders of the County : xxvii, 696 pp., map, 9 illustrations. 



