Basin of the Eden and north-western Coasts of Cumberland, S(c. 399 



(probably on the parallel of the marnes irrisees and the keuper of France and 

 Germany) do not appear in the coast section, for reasons already staled. 



From all these facts, I conclude that the series of deposits overly in"- the 

 Cumberland coal fields is, as far as it goes, perfectly analogous to the corre- 

 sponding series of Yorkshire and Durham, as described in a former paper. 



Nor need we be surprised at this analogy, when we consider the almost 

 perfect agreement of the great groups of the new red sandstone series in En- 

 gland and central Germany. I need not repeat the evidence on which this 

 conclusion rests ; but I may add, that it is even more complete than I supposed 

 at the time the former memoir was published. Three obscure corals, found 

 in our magnesian limestone, had already been figured by Mr. Goldfuss under 

 the generic name of Gorgonia*; and on referring to his account of the lo- 

 calities from which his specimens were derived, it will be seen that they come 

 from the magnesian limestone formation of Mansfeld. Nor has this conclusion 

 been drawn from the mere resemblance of the figures ; for both the British 

 and German specimens have been examined by that accomplished naturalist, 

 and the fossils found to be specifically identical, as he has himself informed me. 

 This fact alone, to which, however, a thousand others might be added, is a 

 sufficient reply to the assertions of some modern writers, who have ventured 

 to affirm that organic remains are of no value in determining the contempo- 

 raneity of distant formations. 



In our south-western coal fields the deposits immediately overlying the car- 

 boniferous rocks are subdivided into three principal groups : the lowest com- 

 posed chiefly of conglomerate, with a calcareo-magnesian cement; the middle 

 group of red and variegated sandstone ; and the highest of red and variegated 

 g'ypseous marls. I think it at least probable that the conglomerates of the 

 Bristol coal fields are on the exact parallel of the magnesian conglomerates 

 described in this paper ; from which it follows that the Bristol conglomerates, 

 as well as those in the valleys of Devonshire (if they be all of the same age), 

 are the true representatives of the magnesian limestone, and not of the rothe 

 todte liegende. 



I ventured to express this opinion in a former paper f ; and it is greatly con- 

 firmed by the facts here stated, as well as by some other facts which fell under 

 my observation last summer (1831), while crossing over one of the coal for- 

 mations of Shropshire. About six or eight miles south-west of Shrewsbury 

 there is a small coal field, stretching at the base of a greywacke chain from 



* See Goldfuss, tab. vii. fig. 1 ; tab. xxxvi. fig. 1 ; and tab. x. fig. 1 ; Gorgonia duhia, G. anceps, 

 G. infundibuU/ormis; and compare them with Geological Transactions, Second Series, vol. ni. 

 p. 120; and Plate XIl, figg. 5. 6, 7. 8. 



f Geological Transactions, Second Series, vol. iii. p. 122. 



