344 MR. E. W. BINNEY ON CARBONIFEROUS, PERMIAN, AND 



brick-red sandstones of those places, with their under- 

 lying red clays, as well as the breccia at Shawk, I have 

 little doubt will be proved to be Permian. It is true 

 that no fossil organic remains have yet been found in 

 them, with the exception of the tract alluded to in this 

 paper; but if mineralogical characters and geological su- 

 perposition are to be taken as evidence of their age, they 

 are as good Permian beds as those of West House, Kirby 

 Stephen, and Brough, in England, and Dumfries and other 

 places in the south-west of Scotland, with the latter of 

 which they are most probably connected.^^ 



In a paper published by Prof. Harkness, in 1862 *, that 

 geologist adopts, in substance, this view, and agrees with 

 my opinion of the Howrigg, Shawk, and Westward red 

 clays and sandstones being of Permian age, and describes 

 a very beautiful section at Hilton, in Westmoreland, which 

 strongly confirms it. Of course, it was not intended to 

 question the Triassic age of the soft red sandstones of 

 Dalston and Holmhead, near Carlisle, which are covered 

 bv waterstones, red marls, and lias, as stated in my paper 

 on the latter deposit f. 



The Shawk sandstones are well seen at Westward Chapel, 

 near Wigton ; West Newton, near Aspatria ; near Allonby, 

 and to the north of Maryport; and after the Maryport, 

 Workington, and Whitehaven coal-field is passed, they 

 appear again to the south of the coast in the magnificent 

 promontory of St. Bees Head, and continue southward 

 certainly to Netherton, Seascales, Gosforth, Drigg Cross, 

 and probably, as Prof. Sedgwick suggests, into Furness {. 



^ ' Quarterly Journal of the Greological Society' for August 1862, p. 205. 



t Rid. for May 1859, P- 549- 



\ Professor Sedgwick " On the New Red Sandstone Series in the Basin 

 of the Eden," vol. iv. new series of the Transactions of the Geological Society 

 of London, p. 389. All geologists who have investigated the geological 

 structure of the counties of Lancaster, Westmoreland, York, and Cumber- 

 land must class the venerable Professor as the father of Permian geology in 

 these counties. The more I investigate these districts, the more I find to 



