PERMIAN STRATA OF EAST CHESHIRE. 231 



Oil any account alloW^. Now^ when he comes into the 

 neighbourhood of Manchester and Stockport^ he not only 

 quietly gets rid of his Lower Mottled Sandstone^ some 

 800 feet in thickness, by stating that it is not to be found, 

 although there are sandstones exactly resembling it at 

 Ardwick and Clayton, near Manchester, and at Stockport, 

 seen dipping under the Pebble-beds, but he also summarily 

 disposes of the red marls and limestones and makes as 

 much Permian sandstone as he can at the expense of the 

 upper portions of the Permian and the lowest parts of the 

 Trias. 



Of course it is well known that soft red sandstones are 

 difficult strata to identify where there are no red marls con- 

 taining magnesian-limestone fossils above or under them. 

 At Heaton Mersey no doubt these red marls were met 

 with, about 130 feet in thickness, resting upon a thick bed 

 of Collyhurst Sandstone, some five or six hundred feet; 

 and probably the red marls seen at Tradis Brook, near 

 Heaton Norris, may be a thinner representative of them 

 lying on the Permian sandstone ; but it must be borne in 

 mind that as yet no fossil organic remains have been 

 found in these marls, although diligent search has been 

 made for them. The Pebble-beds are brought in by the 

 fault at Heaton Norris ; and under them dips the soft red 

 sandstone seen on the Denton Road about a mile out of 

 Stockport, at Brinnington, and Fogbrook. This rock 

 Mr. Hull regards as the Collyhurst Sandstone, the Lower 

 Mottled Sandstone and the Permian marls having thinned 

 out or or at least disappeared f. 



The passage of the Pebble-beds at Heaton Norris and 

 Stockport into the underlying soft red sandstone is so 

 gradual and regular that no one has been able to find a 



* Transactions of the Manchester Geological Society, vol. ii. p. 33. 

 t Geology of the Country round Stockport and Macclesfield, p. 35 (Mem. 

 Geological Survey). 



