180 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Feb. 10, 



along the course of the Yoredale beds to the north of the Cheadle 

 coal-field, and across the Mountain-Limestone country by Meer- 

 brook and Butterton, in the direction of Matlock, while a branch 

 stretched more to the southward in the direction of Charnwood 

 Forest. 



I cannot, therefore, but regard the anticlinal fold which separates 

 the coal-fields of North Staffordshire and Cheadle on the south from 

 those of Poynton and Goldsitch Moss on the north as belonging to 

 the Pendle system of disturbances, ranging nearly from west to east, 

 and, by the position of the Permian beds at Rushton Spencer, clearly 

 shown to have originated at the close of the Carboniferous period. 

 If such be the case, can it be doubted that the anticlinal extends 

 westiuard under the Triassic rocks of Cheshire ? 



If, therefore, as appears to be the case, the Dane antichnal 

 stretches westward under the Triassic plain, we may reasonably look 

 for some evidence of its continuance and reappearance on the western 

 margin of the plain where the Carboniferous beds emerge from be- 

 neath the !N'ew Red Sandstone. This evidence, I think, we can find. 



The Carboniferous Anticlinal in North Wales. — If the Geological 

 Map be referred to, it will be observed that at its southern extre- 

 mity the Flintshire coal-field is completely dissevered from that of 

 Denbighshire by the uprising of the Lower Carboniferous rocks, 

 from which the coal-measures have been denuded. 



The age of this fault, belonging probably to several periods of 

 vertical movement, is, at least, clearly prse-Triassic, as it disappears 

 beneath the New Red Sandstone near Hope without producing any 

 displacement of the beds ; and it is also post- Carboniferous. Its 

 relation to the Permian beds cannot be determined by observation, as 

 it is nowhere brought into contact with them. It seems, indeed, to 

 be gradually dying out towards the east as it approaches the New Red 

 Sandstone, and to pass into an anticlinal axis. The view which I 

 venture to ofi'er is this : — I regard this upheaval as belonging to the 

 Pendle system of disturbances at the close of the Carboniferous period, 

 as indicated by the parallelism of its direction to this system, and 

 also as being continuous in direction with the Dane anticlinal axis 

 on the eastern borders of the Cheshire plain. 



Supposed Structure of the Carboniferous RocJcs under the Cheshire 

 Plain. — If the above reasoning be admitted, it follows that there 

 exists under the Triassic rocks of Cheshire an axis of elevation of 

 Lower Carboniferous beds ranging from the southern borders of the 

 Flintshire coal-field near Hope, on the west, to the valley of the 

 Dane, north of Congleton, on the east, dividing the coal-field, which 

 we may conclude originally spread uninterruptedly over the whole 

 area, into two portions, to the north and south of this axis. I do not 

 pretend to much precision in describing the course and structure of 

 this axis under a tract of newer rocks 35 miles in width : it is 

 probably accompanied by more than one parallel folding of the beds ; 

 but I think, with the arrangement of the rocks at Congleton Edge 

 and the Roaches near Leek before us, we might venture to idealize 

 the structure of this axis and its relations to the newer formations 



