372 MR. E. W. BINNEY ON CARBONIFEROUS^ PERMIAN^ AND 



red sandstone last described is again seen capping the 

 coal-measures^ and forming an anticlinal axis at Ravenhill, 

 dipping from that point to the north towards Whitehaven, 

 and to the south towards Barrowmouth. 



At Ravenhill the lower portions of the sandstone are 

 quite of a conglomerate character, and contain many 

 white quartz pebbles and one large slate-pebble (6 inches 

 in diameter), as well as a considerable quantity of peroxide 

 of iron and decomposed felspar, which appeared to me 

 like volcanic ash. The dips of the sandstone and the coal- 

 measures appeared to be about the same ; but, so far as my 

 observation went, there was no appearance of the passage 

 of one rock into the other, but only a simple superposition. 

 The lower portions of this sandstone are exactly of the 

 same character as the sandstones of Astley and Bedford, 

 described by me as Lower Permian, and in no wise to be 

 distinguished from a similar coarse sandstone (containing 

 coal-plants) seen in the ballast- quarry at Moira near 

 Ashby-de-la-Zouch, which Mr. Woodhouse and other prac- 

 tical geologists of the neighbourhood consider to be quite 

 unconformable to the underlying coal-field. This rock, if 

 not to be classed as Permian, must be taken as upper and 

 unconformable coal-measures ; for in Lancashire and Lei- 

 cestershire it is quite unconformable both to Permian 

 strata above and coal-measures underneath. The chief 

 reason which has induced me to remove them from the 

 carboniferous strata is the conglomerate character of the 

 lower part of the sandstone, which, as previously stated, 

 is more like a millstone-grit than an upper coal-measure 

 rock. For the present it appears to me desirable to retain 

 it, as Prof. Sedgwick first designated it, by the name of 

 Lower Red Sandstone, or my name of Lower Permian. 

 It is to be remarked, that when the soft sandstone of 

 CoUyhurst, Kirkby Stephen, and Hilton is absent this 

 sandstone is generally met with ; and, so far as my know- 



