24? PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [May 28, 



(9.) Liverpool and Manchester Railway Section south of St. Helens. 



2 

 N.B. The arrows denote the direction of the dip at the places where its amount is quoted. 



Sutton. 



The upper new red sandstone is seen on the west of the branch 

 leading from the Liverpool and Manchester Railway to St. Helens, 

 and there dips at a moderate angle to the east ; but it cannot be 

 traced to the variegated and red measures seen in the Sutton brook, 

 which appear again on their rise on the inclined plane. These beds 

 of clay contain thin bands of gritstone and some smooth laminated 

 light-coloured strata resembling the upper beds of magnesian lime- 

 stone of Brotherton in Yorkshire, but they do not effervesce on being 

 treated with acids. Their appearance on the whole, although re- 

 sembling some of the lower deposits of the new red sandstone for- 

 mation, has induced me to colour them as part of the upper coal- 

 field, — as high as, or even higher in the series than, the red measures 

 seen at Ardwick. No fossil organic remains have as yet been found 

 in them. The dip of the strata east of the Workhouse Bridge is 17° 

 to the E.S.E. ; on the west of the bridge is seen a fault, with a hard 

 crystalline rock apparently much altered by heat lying in it, and re- 

 gular coal-measures of the middle field dipping to the S.S.W. at an 

 angle of 16°. An anticlinal axis is thus formed. The coal-measures 

 continue for some distance, and become nearly level before they are 

 covered up by the drift. The upper new red sandstone is not seen 

 on the railway, owing to there being no cuttings ; but at Thatto Heath, 

 a little to the north of the line, it occurs as a strong conglomerate, 

 dipping westwards, and continues as far as the railway station at 

 Kenrick's Cross. 



Whiston. 



Proceeding towards Liverpool, after leaving the station at Ken- 

 rick's Cross, the upper new red sandstone is soon seen taking a mo- 

 derate dip to the south-east. Near the Wooden Bridge at Whiston, 

 it dips at an angle of 25°, is much discoloured, and traversed 

 by joints filled with a substance resembling oxide of manganese. 

 The dip increases to an angle of Q5° east of the bridge, and then 

 ninety-eight yards of coal-measures are seen protruded through 

 the sandstone. These measures are of the upper coal-field, and 



