218 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCLETY. [Mar. 19, 



mile E. of the Nith to about two miles W. thereof. In this section 

 the lowest strata, well seen at Craig's Quarry, are red sandstones with 

 the same footprints as those of Corncockle, upon which, after passing 

 through false-bedded sandstone, the thick mass of breccia forming a 

 trough through which the Nith flows, and which extends to the Silu- 

 rian hill W. of Dumfries, is seen. 



The sections of Annandale and Nithsdale collectively furnish the fol- 

 lowing groups Avhich compose the Permians of this part of Scotland : — 

 first and lowest, breccias ; second, a thick series of sandstones, some of 

 the strata of which are somewhat incoherent, and some flaggy, with 

 footprints ; and third and highest, a thick mass of breccias. This se- 

 quence shows such an analogy to the inferior sandstones of Westmore- 

 land as to justify the conclusion that in Scotland, so far as is yet known, 

 the Eothliegende portion only of the Permians is exhibited. 



Another important circumstance connected with the Scottish Per- 

 mians is the position of the footprints. Like those occurring in the 

 neighbourhood of Penrith, which consist of Chelichnus Duncani, 

 these impressions appear to mark the middle portion of the Eothlie- 

 gende — a position probably below that portion of the inferior sand- 

 stone represented in the East of England, but which has very likely 

 its equivalent in the well- developed Eothliegende of Saxony. 



No allusion has been made to the geological age of the upper 

 sandstones of the N.W. of England and the S.E. of Dumfriesshire. 

 Like similar strata in the S.E. of Durham, they succeed the Zech- 

 stein representatives of the Eden valley, and might therefore be 

 regarded as Triassic. 



As Mr. Binney has noticed the occurrence of Liassic strata in North 

 Cumberland, near the margins of the Solway Firth, which exhibit 

 themselves in such a position as to lead to the conclusion that they 

 repose in the trough formed by the upper sandstones, the Triassic 

 age of these arenaceous deposits, with clay-beds, becomes highly 

 probable*. 



Note. — In a memoir pubKshed in the 6th vol. of the Quart. Journ. 

 of the Geol.Soc, having reference to the sandstones of the Yale of the 

 Mth, I allude to them as appertaining to the same age as those of the 

 Cumberland area, referring the whole to the Trias. This opinion I 

 adopted in consequence of its being then a generally received one 

 among geologists. Subsequently, in another memoir (vol. xii. p. 266), 

 I stated the reasons which induced mo to alter this opinion, and 

 to regard these deposits as belonging, for the most part, to the Per- 

 mian age. 



2. On the Date of the Last Elevation of Central Scotland. By 

 Aechibald Geikie, Esq., F.E.S.E., E.G.S., of the Geological 

 Survey of Great Britain. 



That the central districts of Scotland, together with the greater part 

 of the British Islands, have undergone a movement of upheaval within 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xv. p. 549. 



