Notices of Memoirs — G. E". Morton — Strata below the Trias, .511 



I. — -The Strata, below the Trias in the country around 

 Liverpool; and the probability of Coal occurring at a 

 MODERATE DEPTH. By G. H. MoRTON, F.Gr.S. [A Paper 

 read before the Liverpool Literary and Philosophical Society, 

 1873.] 



AFTER mentioning two papers on this same subject by E. W. 

 Binney, Esq., F.E.S., Mr, Morton explains the use of the 

 Government Geological Survey Maps, and gives from them a table 

 of the strata as they occur in the country bordering the Dee and 

 Mersey, in ascending order, viz. : — 



[Silurian Wenlock Shale 



Devonian Old Red Sandstone 100 feet. 



Carboniferous ... Carboniferous Limestone .,,1200 „ 



„ Millstone Grit 1000 „ 



. ,, Lower Coal Measures 1800 „ 



"^ „ Middle or Productive Coal 



Measures 1500 „ 



Upper Coal Measures 1200 „ 



Permian Sandstone 300 feet. 



Permian Marl 50 „ 



y. {Trias Lower Bunter 400 „ 



5 I „ Pebble Beds " 350 „ 



g <( „ Upper Bunter 400 „ 



g I „ ... ... Keuper Sandstone 450 „ 



S (^ „ Keuper Marl 100 ,, 



Recent Superficial jiccumulations ... 60 „ 



The Carboniferous strata have in places suffered great denudation. 

 The whole series 6700 feet in thickness has been denuded from the 

 Wenlock Shale of Denbighshire and Flintshire, where it formed an 

 anticlinal curve, and only scattered patches of the Limestone are left 

 at the base to indicate their former position. More to the N.E. there 

 is less elevation, and consequently such a reduced denudation 

 that a fringe of Coal Measures occurs along the S.W. of the Dee. 

 Still further to the N.E., in Wirral, the New Red Sandstone comes in, 

 overlying the Coal Measures, which seem fully developed and unde- 

 nudecl. The Coal Measures continue thus relatively depressed until 

 thrown up by a great fault to the E. of Liverpool, where the Ti'ias 

 and Permian have been denuded. 



The author next alludes to several papers, which the present state 

 of the supply of Coal has called forth, and points out that none of 

 them question the occurrence of the Coal Measures beneath the Trias. 



The Coal Measures, it seems, however, do not always underlie the 

 New Red Sandstone, as proved by numei-ous sections in North Wales, 

 where the Carboniferous Strata has been deeply dentided, and in 

 some places entirely removed before the deposition of the Permian 

 and Trias. 



This great denudation of the Carboniferous Strata on the S.W. of 

 the Dee has been caused by the upheaval and consequent exposure 

 of the country to denuding influences, while the Coal Measures in 



