216 PKOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Mar. 19, 



and others attached to stems akin to Voltzia Phillipsii (Lindley and 

 Hutton), are also seen. 



These plant-remains are usually in the state of carbonaceous mark- 

 ings ; sometimes, however, they occur not imbedded, but enclosed 

 between the laminae ; and when in this condition, their preservation is 

 very imperfect. 



A few traces of animals have also been found here, but, as yet, these 

 have been seen only in the condition of casts. Criuoid stems, of small 

 size, which seem identical with the casts of Cyathocrinus ramosus, 

 are among them. Brachiopodous shells, which in size and general 

 aspect resemble Terehratula elongata, Schloth., present themselves, 

 and also other bivalves which are too imperfect to allow of their 

 relations being determined. 



Although the fossils obtained at Hilton are as yet comparatively 

 few, they conduce to the conclusion that the strata which aiford them 

 are at the base of the Zechstein portion of the Permians, and that 

 the overlying beds, including the red clays, must be regarded as the 

 representatives in the N.W. of England of the higher members of 

 this formation ; while the thick mass of underlying sandstones and 

 breccias is the equivalent of the EothHegende, which attains its great- 

 est development in this part of England. 



§ 10. St. Bees. — Reference to strata which are seen on the north- 

 east side of St. Bees Head, Whitehaven, and which have been long 

 regarded as Permian, still further corroborates this conclusion. 



Here, at Barrow Mouth, reposing on purple sandstones of the Car- 

 boniferous age, is a deposit of breccia only 3 feet in thickness, repre- 

 senting the higher members of the inferior sandstone. 



Magnesian Limestone, which is worked on the side of the hiU, 

 occurs above the breccia. This limestone, the base of which is not 

 here seen, contains Permian LamelUbranchiata. On the shore it 

 reposes on the breccia, and its thickness at this spot is about 11 feet, 

 being much thinner than on the hiU, and indicating a rapid thinning- 

 out. 



Eed marls, with interstratified gypsum, about 30 feet in thickness, 

 succeed the limestone, upon which the fine-grained red sandstones 

 with interbedded clays of St. Bees Head occur, — these latter being in 

 every respect identical with the upper sandstones of Eastern and 

 Northern Cumberland. 



The absence of the magnesian limestone, which we have seen 

 is thinning out, would give us here the most common mode of occur- 

 rence in this county of the argillaceous series and the upper sand- 

 stones. These Permians of St. Bees have been described by Prof. 

 Sedgwick *, and also by Mr. Binney in the memoir so frequently 

 referred to. 



§ 11. The Permians of Cumberland, especially their lower mem- 

 bers, have an interesting bearing on the isolated Permian patches 

 scattered over portions of the South of Scotland, and which, in Dum- 

 friesshire, aiford footprints. 



* Geol. Trans. 2nd Series, vol. ir. p. 395. 



