138 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 9, 



that during the tertiary period there was formed a wide estuary of a 

 large river, running from the west towards the east ; that the land 

 from which the river came must have been to the north, the west, 

 and south-west, whilst the estuary opened into a tidal sea towards 

 the east ; and that at the western part of the Isle of Wight area there 

 existed a considerable shoal. This explains why the section of the 

 tertiary deposits at Alum Bay is so very different to that at White- 

 cliff ; where there was no shoal, but a tidal channel too deep to be 

 affected by the action of the waves of the surface. 



2. On the Permian Character of some of the Red Sandstones 

 and Breccias of the South of Scotland. By E. W. Binney, 

 Esq., F.G.S. In a letter to Sir C. Lyell, V.P.G.S. 



At the conclusion of the paper on the Permian beds, printed in our 

 Manchester Memoirs this last summer, I gave the following as the 

 greatest thicknesses of the different beds in the descending order : — 



feet. 



1. Red and variegated marls, with gypsum in the north, and thin beds 



and nodules of limestone in the south of the district 300 



2. Magnesian Umestone, resembling the Yorkshire deposit 10 



3. Conglomerate 350 



4. Lower New Red Sandstone, of a soft crumbling character ; some of the 



beds flaggy ; the lower beds passing into red laminated marls at 

 Westhouse 500 



1160 



Below these occur the red and variegated sandstone of White- 

 haven, which at present I do not include as Permian. In my paper 

 I state that I am convinced that the conglomerate, or rather breccia, 

 at Craigs and in the Cleuden near Dumfries are of the same geo- 

 logical age as the sandstones and conglomerates of Belah, Brough, 

 Westhouse, and Humphrey Head, and I quote Professor Harkness 

 on the thickness of some of those deposits. 



Since the time you were in Manchester I have been down into the 

 South-west of Scotland, and, after looking at the country, I have 

 come to the conclusion that the red sandstone of Canobie on the 

 Esk, Lockerbie, Corncockle Muir, Dumfries Thornhill, near Sanquhar, 

 and Mauchline, as well as those of the West of Scotland generally, 

 with the exception of the Annan beds containing tracks of the Laby- 

 rinthodon^ will have to be classed as Permian, instead of Trias as 

 they appear on most geological maps. 



At Ballochmoyle Bridge is a fine section of the Upper Permian 

 sandstone of Dumfries and of a purple-coloured conglomerate, or 

 breccia, resembling the same deposit near Dumfries, except that the 

 fragments and pebbles imbedded in the cement consist of trap-rocks 

 instead of slates and Silurian rocks. The escarpment near the old 

 bridge shows the following section : — 



