1845.] BINNEY ON THE NEW RED SANDSTONE. 17 



Cumberland, are but the outcrops of one vast coal-field lying under 

 the new red sandstone formation. 



Previous to describing the sections, it will be as well to remark, 

 that there is great difficulty in distinguishing the lower new red 

 sandstone from some of the rocks of the upper part of the car- 

 boniferous series, for which it has no doubt often been taken. In 

 Lancashire no fossils have hitherto been found in the first-named 

 rock. This is also the case with several of the upper sandstones of 

 the coal-field. The lower sandstone is however generally composed 

 of particles of silica with some few pieces of a mineral resembling 

 jasper, much more feebly cemented together and having far more 

 of a conglomerate character than any sandstone in the upper coal- 

 field. Its grains also have a slighter coating of oxide of iron around 

 them, are larger and much more angular, and contain amongst them 

 few, if any, of the large rounded pebbles so common in the upper 

 new red sandstone. It varies greatly in colour, being sometimes of 

 a deep red, but occasionally dirty green or dull brown, and its thick- 

 ness can never be estimated with any certainty for a considerable 

 distance. 



The red and variegated marls with limestones*, representing the 

 magnesian limestones of Yorkshire and Derbyshire, can generally be 

 well-determined by their characteristic fossils. The beds of limestone 

 contain little, if any, magnesia, and in their appearance and organic 

 remains much resemble the lowest beds of Bolsover, described by 

 Professor Sedgwick in his most valuable paper on the magnesian 

 limestone, published in the Transactions of the Geological Society f. 

 The bed in Derbyshire is provincially called the Fox Bed, and is 

 used for agricultural purposes from the circumstance of its contain- 

 ing little, if any, magnesia. 



The upper new red sandstone varies much in colour, hardness 

 and grain, but on the whole it must be considered as one thick bed, 

 since no lines of demarcation, except a few slight partings of red and 

 variegated clays, can at present be drawn between its upper and lower 

 beds, so as to determine which part of it should be classed with the 

 upper portion of the Permian system, and which with the lower 

 division of the Trias, a separation which Mr. Murchison and M. E. 

 de Verneuil have shown to exist in other countries J. 



With these observations, I shall proceed to describe the sections, 

 and show the relations which exist between the three lower mem- 

 bers of the new red sandstone and the underlying coal-measures. 



In several geological maps, especially that lately published by the 

 Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, the lower new red 

 sandstone and the representative of the magnesian limestone are laid 

 down in continuous lines skirting the coal-fields with great regula- 

 rity. Now these deposits have never yet been met with, so far as 

 I am aware, except at the points mentioned in the following sec- 

 tions : — 



* Transactions of the Manchester Geological Society, vol. i. p. 44. 

 t Second series, vol. iii. p. 81. 



t Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. i. p. 81. 

 VOL. II. — PART I. C 



