112 The Rev. W. Buckland on a Group of Rocks 



contains gypsum as in numerous other places on the banks of the 

 Eden and the Petteril, and In the great valley of Carlisle. 



At the distance above mentioned the sandstone abruptly ceases, 

 ihc water course (a ravine about 30 feet in depth) which till now- 

 had traversed the red sandstone in a direction east and west, sud- 

 denly turns at a right angle to the south, and continues its bear- 

 ing exactly along the line of junction, having its east and west 

 banks composed of materials very different. 



At the point where the water course turns suddenly to the south 

 the sandstone abuts abruptly against a dark compact greenstone, red 

 externally, and very ferruginous. 



This last rock with its varieties forms the east, and the sandstone 

 the west cheek of the ravine for a quarter of a mile up the stream 

 southwards, the excavation being so exactly along the line of junction 

 that no contact or order of superposition can be distinguished. 



Here, at about a mile above the village along the Beck (the name 

 of the spot is Melmerby Lane End,) the greenstone on the east bank 

 becomes mixed confusedly with considerable masses of slate, and 

 the channel ceases to have the red sandstone on its west flank, which 

 becomes occupied by shattered fragments of limestone and coal 

 measures. 



These last beds extend from hence in a line nearly parallel to 

 the slate and greenstone ranges, being interposed between them and 

 the red sandstone of the plain for nearly three miles south from Mel- 

 merby Lane End towards Kirkland,* but are so dislocated and con- 

 fused that the coal seams (which are very thin, often less than a 

 foot,) are in many places quite vertical, and extracted by sinking 

 perpendicularly downwards as in a well ; but they occur no where 



* See Section, Plate 5, No. 2, letter A. 



