TJte Carhoniferoiis Limestone of West Cumberland. 75 



in the main of faiily continuous outcrops, but is much disturbed 

 by faulting. In the unravelling of the tectonics of the district, 

 however, the difficulty caused by excessive faulting is counter- 

 balanced by the multiplicity of the borings that have been made 

 during the exploration and development of the valuable haematite 

 deposits associated with the limestones. In no single instance is 

 there an exposure giving a complete section of the sequence, yet 

 with the help of the journals of the '" bores " every one of the 

 exposures mentioned in this paper can be placed at its exact horizon 

 with great accuracy. 



The area has been mapped by the officers of the Geological Survey.^ 

 The only memoir dealing with the limestone is that on the haematite 

 by B. Smith ^ recently published, in which the names and thicknesses 

 of the various limestones are detailed. 



In 1869 W. Brockbank ^ gave some notes on the Aldby Limestone. 

 The horizon is not mentioned, nor are the fossil contents enumerated, 

 which is to be regretted, as this exposure has been covered over with 

 slag heaps. The most important work on the area under considera- 

 tion is that of Mr. J. D. Kendall.*' Mr. Kendall describes the 

 succession very minutely, records the general lithological 

 characteristics, gives numerous sections, makes comparisons with 

 sections outside our area, and defines the double system or two 

 systems of faulting. No attempt is made to supply any exhaustive 

 account of lithological details, nor are the fossil contents catalogued 

 with any com])leteness. Mr. J. G. Goodchild,'^ in a paper on the 

 Limestones of Cumberland and Westmorland, makes mention of our 

 area in pointing out the attenuation of the detritol rocks interbedded 

 with the limestones as our district is approached from the north 

 and north-east. Since then nothing worthy of note has been done, 

 and no attempt at anything like a thorough investigation of the 

 fossil fauna has been made. With the exception of some specimens 

 of Productus cf. giganteus Mart., one or two other brachiopods, and 

 some very fine specimens of Lonsdaleia (all without localities) in the 

 museum of the Whitehaven Scientific Association, there are no 

 public collections of Carboniferous Limestone fossils in the district. 



The author began collecting in 1910 with a view to correlating 

 the different beds of the various outcrops ; more especially was he 

 anxious to establish definite palseontological horizons in the Egremont 

 portion of the area, where the upper beds with the easily identified 

 Orebank Sandstone are usually denuded, and the interbedded 

 sandstones and shales of the lower portion of the series are not well 



1 Sheet 101 S.W. (New Series, Sheet 28) 



^ Special Reports, vol. viii, — Iron Ores : Hcematites of West Cumberland, 

 etc., 1919. 



3 Proc. Manch. Lit. and Phil. Soc. ; Geol. Mag., Vol. VI, p. 1-11 (Abstract). 



'' " The Carboniferous Rocks of Cumb. and N. Lanes or Furness " : Trans. 

 N. of Eng. Inst. Min. and Mech. Eng., vol. .xxxiv, 1885, p. 185. 



^ " Notes on some of the Limestones of Cumb. and Westm." : Trans. 

 Cumb. and Wcstm. As'soc, No. xvi, 1890-1, p. 13-4. 



