﻿1861.] 



KIRKBY PERMIAN, SOUTH YORKSHIRE. 



289 



upon a deposit of false-bedded, incoherent sandstone, which it is not 

 difficult to identify as the Lower Red Sandstone or Kothliegendcs. 

 Beyond this are the Coal-measures. 



There are several routes- across the outcrop of the beds, with Don- 

 caster for the starting-point, that show this succession of strata. It 

 is well shown on the south side of the Don on the road leading by 

 Hexthorpe, Warmsworth, and Conisborough to Hooten Roberts, and 

 on the north bank of the same river along the road by Newton 

 and Sprotborough to Cadeby, — the numerous quarries on each route 

 affording a good general section. A magnificent section is to be ob- 

 tained by traversing the valley of the Don from Doncaster to a little 

 beyond Conisborough ; and yet another, and one of the best, which 

 Sir Roderick Murchison has already noticed'*, on the South Yorkshire 

 Railway between the points last-named. In all these lines of section 

 the same superposition occurs, — and not only here in the valley and 

 on the banks of the Don, but north as far as Pontefract, and south 

 to Roche Abbey, which are the limits of the district I have examined. 

 North of the Don an excellent section is to be obtained in the Vale 

 of Went, from east of Little Smeaton to Wentbridge ; and to the 

 south there is one almost equally instructive from Tickhill to Maltby. 



From the investigations of Sir Roderick Murchison and the officers 

 of the Geological Survey, it would appear that there are some beds of 

 red sandstone and marl overlying the Brotherton Limestone of this 

 district, which also belong to the Permian formation f . And, though I 

 have not been able to identify these beds myself, I include them in the 

 following list of subdivisions as the uppermost member of the Permian 

 series of South Yorkshire on the authority of these observers. 



To recapitulate, then, the Permian series of South|Yorkshire seems 

 capable of being naturally divided, in the descending order, as fol- 

 lows (see fig. 1) : — 



1. Bunter Schiefer. 



2. Upper Limestone — including the Brotherton Beds 



and Lower Red Marl and Gypsum. 



3. Small-grained Dolomite. 



4. Lower Limestone. 



5. Lower Red Sandstone. 



As Prof. Sedgwick has already described the physical geology of 

 these subdivisions, it will scarcely be required of me to notice them 

 at any great length. It is requisite, however, that I should give a 

 description of these strata as far as necessary for their features to be 

 understood, and for the proper appreciation of their relations to each 

 other and to the subdivisions of the Permian group of Durham. Por 

 fuller descriptions I refer the reader to the memoir of Prof. Sedgwick 

 in the ' Transactions' of this Society for 1835. 



1 . Bunter Schiefer. — Soft red sandstone and marl (Murchison and 

 Geol. Surveyors). 



2. Upper Limestone or Brotherton Beds, and Lower Red Marl. — 

 The Brotherton Beds are a series of thin, flaggy limestones, usually 

 hard and compact, and of a yellow or grey colour. The surface- 



* Siluria, p. 348. t Siluria, p. 326, and Table of Strata, p. 432. 



x 2 



