Basin of the Eden and north-western Coasts of Cumberland, ^c. 389 



and the demarcation ranges at a high elevation along the flanks of the neigh- 

 bouring mountains*. To the south of Gossforth, all the low region border- 

 ing on the coast is so much concealed by transported matter, that the red sand- 

 stone is visible only in a very few places : it, however, comes to the surface, 

 or has been reached by artificial excavations, in several places north of Bootle 

 where it appears to rest immediately on the granitef. Indeed, all the cliffs 

 for eight or ten miles south of Ravenglass are composed of a coarse red gra- 

 vel, looking like materials formed by the breaking up of the red sandstone, 

 and probably resting on it, — a conclusion confirmed by the appearance, during 

 low spring tides, of two reefs of red sandstone (Brandreth Scar and Codlin 

 Rock) not far from the coast. Between Bootle and Duddon Mouth no red 

 sandstone has been found in situ, though the coarse red gravel extends several 

 miles to the south of the former place. All the southern part of the promon- 

 tory (with the exception of Hodbarrow Point, where there is a patch of moun- 

 tain limestone), is, however, composed of marsh land or of drift sand];. 



To the south of the Duddon estuary, the red sandstone again appears in 

 great force, overlying the carboniferous series ; and though buried in many 

 places under enormous mounds of diluvial gravel, there can be no doubt that 

 it forms the subsoil of the whole south-western extremity of Low Furness. 



It deserves remark in this place, that at Hole Beck, near Stank, in a very 

 deep denudation, yellow, cellular beds of magnesian limestone are exposed at 

 the base of the red sandstone §. 



The red sandstone is probably also expanded under the low region at the 

 south-western extremity of Cartmel Fells ; as it is said to have been reached 

 in two places by excavations, and it appears, as a very characteristic conglo- 

 merate, unconformable to the mountain limestone near Flookborough Spaw. 

 No traces of it have, I believe, been discovered on the neighbouring coasts of 

 Westmoreland and Lancashire; but it reappears (far beyond the limits of the 

 country I am attempting to describe) in a small patch, at Westhouse, near 

 Ingleton ; as has been already noticed by Professor Phillips ||. 



These detached masses of the new red sandstone prove, at least, that the 

 formation was at one time expanded over a much larger surface than it is at 

 present : indeed, there can be little doubt that it once extended, in a conti- 

 nuous mass, from the shores of Cumberland to South Lancashire and Cheshire. 

 That much of it has been swept away, is shown by the whole aspect of the 



* See Plate XXV. fig. 5. f See Plate XXV. fig. 6. 



X By comparing this description with Mr. Greenough's geological map, it will be seen that he 

 has extended the red sandstone of the Cumberland coast considerably too far south. 



§ See Plate XXV. fig. 7. H Geological Transactions, Second Series, vol. iii. pi. 2. 



