STRATA OF CUMBERLAND AND DUMFRIES. 343 



XXVII. — Further Observations on the Carboniferous , Per- 

 mian, and Triassic Strata of Cumberland and Dumfries. 

 By the President, E. W. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S. 



Read October 20th, 1863. 



Introductory Remarks. 



When, in 1848, the Red Sandstones of the neighbourhood 

 of Dumfries first came under my observation, in company 

 with my friend Prof. Harkness, doubts arose in my mind 

 as to the propriety of their being classed with the Trias, 

 their character and organic remains clearly indicating 

 more of a Permian age ■^. Accordingly, in my first paper 

 published on this subject in the Society's ^ Memoirs ' f ^^ 

 1855, allusion is made to these beds, and they are classed 

 as Permian after tracking the Permian beds of Lan- 

 cashire through the north-western counties of York, West- 

 moreland, and Cumberland. My attention was chiefly 

 directed to the red marls, magnesian limestone, conglo- 

 merate, and soft Red Sandstone strata, these being the 

 common Lancashire types ; and where the Red Sandstones 

 of the neighbourhood of Carlisle and St. Bees were inci- 

 dentally mentioned, they were treated as Upper New Red 

 Sandstone or Trias, as Prof. Sedgwick had described them 

 in his valuable memoirs ; but in my and memoir J, pub- 

 lished in 1857, where the Howrigg, Shawk, and Westward 

 sections are described, I came to this conclusion : — '^ the 



* In the 'Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society' for 1851, p. 162, 

 Sir R. I. Murchison doubted the sandstone of Dumfries being of Triassic 

 age, and preferred to class it with the Permian. 



t " On the Permian Beds of the North-west of England," vol. xii. p. 209, of 

 the Society's ' Memoirs.' 



X " Additional Observations on the Permian Beds of the North-west of 

 England," vol. xiv. p. 10 1, of the Society's 'Memoirs.' 



SER. III. VOL. II. 2 A 



