.50 B'lnney — Lower New Bed, Sandstones. 



Permian deposits, were not of the same age as the Sandstone I was 

 in search of. That rock certainly underlies the Kirkby-Woodhouse 

 conglomerate and the yellow Sandstones. I was looking for a rock 

 analogous to that described by me at Whitehaven, Astley, and Moira. 



It will be well to give the views of the two authors above 

 alluded to. 



Professor Sedgwick, who may be fairly termed the father of what 

 is -now called Permian Greology, at p. 65 of his paper on the "Greo- 

 logical Eolations and Internal Structure of the Magnesian Lime- 

 stone,"' says : "During the time I had an opportunity of observing 

 in a part of Yorkshire that the Magnesian Limestone, rested upon a 

 system of beds of very peculiar character, which in some places 

 resembled coarse Millstone-grit, and in others had more the ap- 

 pearance of New Eed Sandstone. As, however, at that time I had 

 no means of ascertaiaing the extent and continuity of this deposit, 

 and as I found that its upper surface was in some places unconform- 

 able to the Limestone which rested upoii it, I erroneously concluded 

 that it was a peculiar formation of Gritstone subordinate to the 

 Yorkshire Coal-field." 



He afterwards altered his opinion to that of Dr. Smith, — ^that the 

 rock belonged to the Magnesian Limestone ; and, after tracing it 

 from Harthill, in the south of Yorkshire, followed it through Bram- 

 ham Moor, Plumpton, Knaresborough, Scara, near Ripley, and South 

 Stainley, where he appears to have lost sight of it, and, at p. 70, 

 says : " It is, however, difficult and perhaps impossible to determine 

 its precise limits, as it makes no escarpment, and can hardly be 

 distinguished from some varieties of Millstone -grit which range 

 through the same district." 



Professor John Phillips, in his "Notes on the G-eology of 

 Harrogate,"^ says: "Few rocks are more variable in composition, 

 while regular in sequence, than the Lower Permian Sandstones and 

 Shales. When the sequence is immediate from the Upper Coal- 

 measures to the Permian beds, as in Durham, North Staffordshire, 

 and part of Yorkshire and Derbyshire, the analogy of the two sets of 

 strata is considerable, even if they do not exchange beds. But in 

 this part of Yorkshire the Permian beds are in no sense or manner 

 conformed to the Coal-system, or any part of it. They are strictly 

 transgressive, and very much so, resting on extremely different 

 members of the great Carboniferous system, and of very different 

 age. In this particular district the MUlstone-grit probably under- 

 went enormous waste after the anticlinal was formed, and before 

 the Permian beds were deposited. These Permian beds of coarse 

 and fine purple Sandstone are full of the detritus of Millstone-grit. 

 The felspar is rolled, but quite recognizable, and the mica appears in 

 ferruginous patches. The rock is quite undistinguishable from 

 Millstone-grit in hand specimens ; even the purple colour (due to 

 decomposed ferruginous mica) fails sometimes ; and, as at Plumpton, 

 great and lofty cliffs of solid rock appear, such as may have yielded 



1 Transactions of the Geological Society of London, 2nd Series, vol. iii. 



2 Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. xxi. p. 234. 



