1865.] HAEKNESS CUMBEKXAND AND WESTMOBELAND, 247 



There is in the townships of Ousby and Kirkland in Cumberland, 

 and in the township of Milburn in Westmoreland, an area lying 

 W.S.W. of the Lower Silurian Rocks and E.N.E, of the Great 

 Pennine Fault, occupied by strata appertaining to the Carboniferous 

 formation and the Upper Old Red Sandstone. These rocks can be 

 seen in Ashlock Syke, a short distance from the church at Ousby. 

 They are still more apparent in Ardale Beck, from Ousby Town 

 Head for about half a mile E.N.E., where they are succeeded by the 

 iipper shales of the Skiddaw slates. The hmestones of the Car- 

 boniferous formation have been worked here, and the pebbly beds 

 of the Old Red Sandstone occur beneath them, but the whole are 

 greatly broken up. The occurrence here of these rocks has been 

 noticed by Dr. Buckland *. 



The outcrop of the Old Red Sandstone occurring in this de- 

 tached area can be traced from Ardale Beck along the north-east, 

 east, and south-east escarpment of the Common called Bank Rig. 

 This escarpment, in its eastern part, is in almost close contiguity 

 with the Old Red Sandstone of Cocklock Scar, the former passing 

 under the limestone of Bank Rig, and the latter under the Mel- 

 merby Scar limestone of Skirwith Fell, the slight interval se- 

 parating these Old Red Sandstones and limestones being occupied 

 by the Skiddaw slate, as before mentioned. The limestone over- 

 lying the Upper Old Red Sandstone of Bank Rig is worked on the 

 Common, and has a S.S.E. dip at 15°. From the occurrence of the 

 pebbly Old Red Sandstone below it, this Hmestone is doubtless the 

 lowest of the Carboniferous strata, the Melmerby Scar limestone. A 

 short distance to the south of Bank Rig, Kirkland Beck intersects 

 the Old Red Sandstone, which has here a south-west dip, being 

 directly opposite to the inclination of its equivalent, as this underlies 

 the Carboniferous rocks of the Pennine escarpments. 



Passing into Westmoreland, we find this detached and south- 

 western Carboniferous area separated from the Pennine chain by 

 the Skiddaw slates of Milburn Pasture. Limestone has been exten- 

 sively worked in this portion of the area, at Thrushgill and other spots 

 on Red Carle. We find it again about a third of a mile south-east 

 of BLowgill Castle, beyond which, southward, we lose all traces of 

 this newer Palaeozoic area, the Skiddaw slates, porphyries, ash-beds, 

 fossiliferous flags, or Coniston Limestone coming into contact with the 

 Upper Permian sandstones on the line of the Great Pennine Fault. 



This detached area of Old Red Sandstone and Carboniferous rocks 

 commonly occupies a much lower elevation than the corresponding 

 rocks of the Pennine escarpment, from which it has been broken off 

 and thrown down to the south-west. It is probably the relic of a 

 much larger area which at one time covered up the Lower Silurian 

 Rocks, their exposure being the result of denudation. 



The extension of this fault through the older Pala:;ozoic rocks, 

 beyond the south-eastern termination of the detached Old Red 

 Sandstone and Carboniferous area, is difficult to determine. 



There is, however, as before alluded to, a deep vaUey separating 

 * Loc. cit. supra, p. 113. 



