1845.] BINNEY ON THE NEW RED SANDSTONE. 25 



consist of red clays containing a bed of limestone about two feet 

 in thickness, resembling that found at Ardwick, and a rock of red- 

 dish gritstone on the east of the bridge. These strata dip to the 

 west at an angle of 24°, which gradually diminishes as you proceed 

 westwards until they reach the upper new red sandstone, where it 

 is only about 5°; three or four inches of soft red clay intervene be- 

 twixt the coal-measures and the upper new red sandstone. The last- 

 named rock when it appears is much discoloured. At first its angle 

 of dip is 50° to the west, but this soon lessens to 30°; and it then, 

 in the distance of a few hundred yards, disappears, and is succeeded 

 by the Halsnead and Huyton coal-field. 



Huyton, 



After the disappearance of the upper new red sandstone in the 

 last section, some of the higher portions of the Halsnead coal-mea- 

 sures are seen on the railway dipping eastwards, but no good section 

 appears until you reach the cutting at Huyton Quarry. The flag- 

 rock there seen is one well known in the neighbourhood of Bury 

 and Rochdale as the upper flag, or old Lawrence rock, and is al- 

 ways found to overlie the upper portion of the lower coals. It dips 

 to the south-east at an angle of 26°, and some of its lowest beds on 

 their rise abut against the upper new red sandstone lying in the 

 valley below, and extending from that point to beyond Liverpool 

 without interruption. The occurrence of the last-named rock on 

 the rise of the coal-measures seems to indicate a great downthrow 

 of the latter filled up with sandstone. Where the coals come up 

 again to the west remains yet to be proved. The upper new red 

 sandstone, when again seen on the railway near Broad Green, dips 

 eastwards. 



The last three sections aftbrd us valuable information as to the 

 different characters of the dislocations which have broken up the 

 coal-field. The first two of them exhibit anticlinal axes of upper 

 new red sandstone, without any traces of the marls and limestones 

 and lower new red sandstone. They are, beyond doubt, elevations 

 and protrusions of coal-measures fairly through the upper new red 

 sandstone, effected since the deposition of the latter rock ; and if 

 the two lower members of the new red sandstone had there existed, 

 some traces of them would in all probability have appeared. But 

 the coal-measures of Halsnead and Huyton were evidently elevated 

 before the upper new red sandstone was deposited on their western 

 flanks. This last-named rock overlies a great mass of these deposits 

 between Huyton and Liverpool. Between Liverpool and the Irish 

 Sea, few, if any, searches for coal have been made ; but if the upper 

 new red sandstone can be found cropping out to the west, there is 

 every reason to believe that coals will be met with under it. On the 

 other hand, if the sandstone west of Liverpool is found dipping west- 

 ward, the coals will be at a great depth. 



