416 T. V. Holmes — Geological Structure 



grey sandstone and shale directly overlying the red rock in which 

 the boring ends". Also that this view is somewhat confirmed by 

 the opinion of my colleague, J. G. Goodchild, then working in the 

 Eden Valley district. "He (Goodchild) also thinks that the beds 

 between Bracken How and this spot (Abbey Town) are higher than 

 any he has seen in the St. Bees Sandstone of the Eden Valley 

 district where the top beds are cut off by the great Pennine fault " 

 (Geol. Surv. Mem., p. 20). 



Bracken How is a house on the River Caldew. On descending this 

 stream St. Bees Sandstone first becomes visible about 500 yards south 

 of the house, and appears thence, at intervals, as far as the house 

 itself (Mem., p. 18). 



It may be well to state that any classification of mine, at any time, 

 of these rocks as Permian, Triassic, Banter, or Keuper has been simply 

 to mark their relative positions locally ; and that any changes of 

 name have been simply in deference of the classifications of writers 

 with a wider knowledge of Pernio-Triassic districts. For though the 

 Permo-Triassic rocks of Cheshire or the Vale of York are not likely 

 4o be identified with special formations in Nithsdale, the Vale of 

 Eden, or the Carlisle Basin, yet a broad knowledge of the various 

 localities must be the safest guide to such general classification as 

 may be possible. 



Professor Gregory notes that " the Dumfriesshire continuation of 

 the St. Bees Sandstone rests unconformably on the Carboniferous 

 without any Permian beds intervening". He then proceeds to 

 speculate as to what lines of fault, etc., might have produced this 

 state of things, which he seems to consider so strange and abnormal 

 as to require some very special explanation. He has also mis- 

 understood the nature of the difference between my view and that of 

 some older geological surveyors as to the probable sequence of the 

 formations of t£e Carlisle Basin. They (as already stated) thought 

 that the Kirklinton Sandstone was an older formation than the 

 Gypseous Shales resting on the St. Bees Sandstone in the Abbey 

 Town boring. And that these Gypseous Shales probably belonged 

 ■"to the same subdivision as the Stanwix Shales" (preface to 

 Geol. Surv. Memoir). For then the Lias would rest conformably 

 upon these representatives of the Keuper Marls in Cumberland. My 

 own view was that the Gypseous Shales were older than the 

 Kirklinton Sandstone. These differing views were simply with 

 regard to the relative positions of the Gypseous Shales and Kirklinton 

 Sandstone, and had no bearing on anything but the position of the 

 overlying Lias. There were no doubts as to the truth of my views 

 with regard to the position of the St. Bees Sandstone : that it rested 

 on Carboniferous rocks of various ages (except above Wreay in the 

 Eden Valley) and was the oldest of the Permo-Triassic formations of 

 the Carlisle Basin. 



"While the persistent drift covering the country west of Carlisle 

 made the relations of the Gypseous Shales and Kirklinton Sandstone 

 to each other doubtful, the St. Bees Sandstone occupies an area in 

 which rivers, streams, and quarries show a considerable number of 

 sections, both north and south of the Sol way. Hence the position of 



