260 MR. E. HULL ON THE NEW RED SANDSTONE,, ETC., 



the north of England and Lancashire, as shown by Messrs. 

 Binney and Harkness. Wherever it occurs, it will pro- 

 bably be found well charged with water. It also attains 

 a development of 200 feet in Durham, as shown by Pro- 

 fessor Sedgwick, forming the base of the escarpment which 

 marks the boundary of the magnesian limestone ; but in 

 the central counties it disappears, and in its stead we find a 

 thick series of red calcareous marls and sandstones, occupy- 

 ing large tracts of Warwickshire, Staffordshire, and Wor- 

 cestershire, resting on the Coal-measures, and overlain by 

 the New Red Sandstone. The relative position of these 

 beds and the Lower Permian sandstone cannot be satisfac- 

 torily determined, as they nowhere occur in the same 

 place; but it is probable that the latter is more recent 

 than the former, though they are both of Permian age. 

 As a group of water-bearing strata, however, the red marls 

 and sandstones of the central counties must be considered 

 as ill adapted for this purpose, as the frequent occurrence 

 of thick beds of impervious marls and clays must prevent 

 any large accumulation of water in the beds of sandstone ; 

 and whatever the quantity of water, it is likely to be hard, 

 owing to the large distribution of calcareous matter through- 

 out the whole of the formation. It was into these beds 

 that the well for the supply of Wolverhampton was sunk, 

 and which failed to obtain a sufficient supply (see fig. 2). 



The lower division of the Keuper, called Lower Keuper 

 Sandstone, which lies at the base of the great series of 

 red marls, I have omitted to include in the category of 

 water-bearing strata, as they are only imperfectly so, and 

 might often be found to yield salt water. This series of 

 beds consist of white and brown sandstones, tolerably hard, 

 interlaced with red shales and clays, the former being per- 

 meable, the latter not so. On this account these strata 

 frequently give rise to springs, and are in consequence 

 called " water-stones '^ in Cheshire and Lancashire. The 



