Basin of the Eden and north-western Coasts of Cumberland, %c. 387 



for roofing'-slate. In England such a structure must be considered rare ; but in 

 Dumfriesshire the new red sandstone not unusually rises in flaggy beds which 

 are^ I believe^ sometimes applied to a similar purpose. 



The further range^ to the coast of Cumberland, is detailed in the Appendix 

 (p. 405); and it is sufficient in this place to state, that the line of demarcation 

 incloses Penrith Beacon, Thiefside Fell, and the great quarries of Highhead 

 Castle ; and that, after skirting the Bolton coal field, it stretches in a direction 

 nearly east and west, and runs into the sea on the south side of Maryport. Along 

 this line there are no traces of conglomerates (like those above described) ; 

 nor, in general, is there anything in the position of the red sandstone beds to 

 prove that they are unconformable to the carboniferous beds on which they 

 rest*. They make no regular escarpment, and there is moreover a difficulty 

 in determining their exact limits, of which those who have only studied the 

 types of our south-western coal fields can hardly form a just estimate. The 

 gritstone beds of the carboniferous series are, here and there, of a deep red co- 

 lour, and cannot always be distinguished from the new red sandstone. More- 

 over there seem to be, along some portions of this line, traces of a lower red 

 sandstone, forming a connecting link between the true carboniferous rocks 

 and the formation I am now describing f. 



Between the south-western boundary of the new red sandstone and the 

 banks of the Eden, there are many tracts of wild sterile land. For the rich 

 gypseous marls, which give so much fertiUty to the great plain of central 

 England, are there almost entirely wanting ; and the subsoil is composed of 

 a barren sandstone, on the parallel, if I mistake not, of the forest sand of Not- 

 tinghamshire. This sandstone has been exposed to great degradations since 

 the time of its first deposit ; but by taking the height of Penrith Beacon, and 

 adding to it the depth of the borings in search of coal, near its base, we have 

 a proof that the portions of red sandstone, still remaining, are in some places 

 of a very great aggregate thickness;};. 



The great degradation of the red sandstone is proved, not only by the 



* The neighbourhood of Rosley seems an exception to this remark, for the coal strata are there 

 much shattered, and in some places highly inclined, while the overlying formation of red sand- 

 stone is nearly horizontal. 



-j- Among the dislocated and highly-inclined beds near Brough, the grits of the carboniferous 

 series are generally iron-shot, and not unusually of a deep red colour. Rocks of a similar colour, 

 but of more doubtful relations, occur near the line of the road between Penrith and Newton Raney ; 

 also in the same neighbourhood near Catterlem and Hutton. Again, a few miles west of Mary- 

 port, there are examples of a red grit (probably portions of the " lower red sandstone ") near the 

 demarcation above noticed. 



J At a place called Honey Pot, close to the banks of the Eamont, a little below Penrith, they 

 VOL. V. SECOND SERIES. 3 E 



