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



there must be a thickness of about 200 yards; so here 

 we have to add that distance to the thickness of the 

 upper coal-measures as seen in Ayrshire. After leaving 

 the Spirorbis limestone, and proceeding up the river, the 

 strata are a good deal dislocated, some of the dips being 

 to the N.W. ; but beds of gritstone and purple shales, 

 containing impure calcareous beds, are met with up to 

 Mr. Gibsone^s Great Permian Pault (which it would be 

 better to call the Great South Fault), that brings in 

 the Canobie thick or middle coal-field at Byreburn Foot, 

 which is generally considered to represent the middle or 

 thick coal-measures of Whitehaven, and the same strata 

 at Common in Ayrshire. After passing over this coal- 

 field, the limestone series of coal-measures is seen above 

 the Hollows Bridge. As to the value of the seams in the 

 last-named part of the coal-measures my observations did 

 not allow me to form any opinion, except that they did not 

 appear to be so rich in coal as the same strata are in Ayr- 

 shire and the West of Scotland. Mr. Ralph Moore esti- 

 mates the Ayrshire coal-measures as follows : — 



Fathoms. 



Upper coal-measures 313 



Limestone series 52 



Lower coal series zoo * 



Now, in the Valley of the Ayr, near Catrine, there are 

 from 250 to 300 fathoms to be added to the upper coal- 

 measures, so as to connect the latter with the Balloch- 

 moyle limestone ; and in the Canobie section it has been 

 previously shown that there are 100 fathoms of upper 

 coal-measures above a similar bed of limestone ; so, 

 in estimating the distance down to the profitable coal- 

 field at Canobie Bridge, some 350 to 400 fathoms will 

 most probably have to be sunk through before that is 



* ' Papers on the Blackband Ironstone of the Edinburgh and East Lothian 

 Coal-field,' &c., by Kalph Moore, Mining Enginieer, Glasgow, i86i, p. 9. 



