Mr. Hvtton's Notes on the New Red Sandstone, ^c. 61 



marked too minutely ; and this more especially, when these beds pos- 

 sess any local interest, or economical value. The Sandstone beneath 

 the Magnesian Limestone, besides being a member of our Strata, with 

 which we were not before acquainted, is one of considerable importance 

 to all the owners of property where it exists, particularly to all those 

 who may have any intention of working Coal beneath it. Considering 

 it in this view to deserve our attention, I beg to lay before the Society 

 the following details of an examination of its edge, throughout the whole 

 of the county of Durham, and the ideas that have suggested themselves 

 by the survey, and this I do with the greater confidence, having had 

 the advantage of the skill and professional experience of my friend, Mr. 

 Francis Forster, along the whole of the line. 



The beds composing the lower New Red Sandstone vary considerably 

 both in mineral character and thickness, one great division may, how- 

 ever, be satisfactorily established, viz. an upper and a lower bed. 



The upper bed is generally a running Sand, occasionally it may be 

 considered as a Sandstone, but it never possesses coherence enough to 

 be of use as a building material ; it has interspersed through it, rounded 

 grains of white Quartz, which occur very irregularly, but are often ar- 

 ranged in lines parallel to the planes of stratification, the prevailing 

 colour is a very light buff. Between this and the lower bed, which is 

 more consolidated, and of a red colour, the division is generally well 

 ■marked, but sometimes the two pass into each other insensibly, the 

 Sand gradually changing its hue, becoming compact and micaceous. 

 The colour of the lower stratum is a character which varies exceedingly ; 

 it is at all times, more or less, red, sometimes purple ; but almost every 

 quarry furnishes beds, which, when taken alone, have little in their as- 

 pect to distinguish them from a common Coal Grit ; sometimes it is 

 light yellow, or nearly white with zones or bands of deep red, and fre- 

 quently the colouring matter is in veins and spots. The characteristic 

 colour of this Rock appears to arise from Oxyde of Iron disseminated 

 through it, but this is frequently united with a clayey matter, forming 

 nodules of " Ruddle," which are irregularly embedded in the Stone. 

 The state in which Iron exists in this formation is different from that 



