226 MR. E. W. BINNEY ON THE 



(Soft and hard sandstones of a bright-red colour, and 

 red and variegated shales about thirty yards in 

 thickness. 

 5. Middle Coal-measures. 



The dip of the strata was to the north-west — the Per- 

 mian beds at about an angle of io°_, and the Coal-measures 

 about 20°. No. 4 appeared more like Permian than Car- 

 boniferous strata^ especially the upper portion^ some five 

 yards in thickness^ which could not be distinguished from 

 the Collyhurst sandstone. Under this bed occurred a 

 band of fine-grained hard sandstone of a bright-red colour ; 

 and then came red and variegated shales^ which passed 

 into the Middle Coal-measures. 



There was no decisive evidence to separate the red 

 sandstones from the underlying shales ; so they are classed 

 together as doubtful Permian ; but probably we shall not 

 be far wrong in placing the former as Permian and the 

 latter as Carboniferous. In the Geological Survey Map, 

 as well as in the Memoir previously quoted, Mr. Hull has 

 placed these Permian strata as an isolated patch entirely 

 surrounded by Coal-measures. He does not give the evi- 

 dence on which he comes to this conclusion ; but so far as 

 the Ockley- Brook section shows, it does not appear to me 

 probable that Coal-measures succeed the Permian strata 

 on the dip, but, like the Norbury-Brook section to the 

 south, it is more likely they are succeeded by Triassic 

 strata. In this last-named section, described by me many 

 years ago, at Norbury Mill, the breccia had more of a 

 conglomerate character, and only 5 feet 3 inches thick- 

 ness, being separated from the Middle Coal-measures by 

 12 feet of red clays. Certainly no such a bed of breccia 

 as that seen in Ockley Brook, to my knowledge, has ever 

 been previously noticed in Cheshire. The Permian sand- 

 stone only 5 yards in thickness is but a poor represen- 

 tative of that rock seen so near as at Heaton Mersey, where 



