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



where sucli strata are now found. Probably the most 

 complete series of these upper coal-measures is to be 

 found at Ardwick, in the Manchester coal-field, where 

 five different seams of coal and three beds of limestone 

 have been profitably wrought. Here the deposit is rich 

 in fossil organic remains, and contains a flora more distinct 

 than any other in the British coal-fields, with the ex- 

 ception of that found low down in the Scottish series at 

 Burdiehouse, near Edinburgh. That eminent palaeonto- 

 logist, Dr. Geinitz, of Dresden, after the examination of 

 one of the best collections of these fossil plants, pro- 

 nounced them to be true coal-measure specimens. The 

 limestones were for a long period called freshwater ; but 

 after a careful examination of the moUusks, that well- 

 known conchologist, Professor De Koninck, of Liege, came 

 to the conclusion that they were all of an estuarine or 

 marine character. 



At Canobie, as previously stated, about 200 yards of 

 upper coal-measures are met with above the Spirorbis 

 limestone, and these are probably the highest carboniferous 

 strata that have hitherto been discovered in England ; and 

 here also we have something like a passage of Carbonifer- 

 ous into Permian. I do not say, without making a cutting 

 in the Duke of Buccleuch^s land, just above the bridge, that 

 I can absolutely prove that one formation passes into the 

 other ; but it is certainly the most likely place for it to be 

 seen, if it really does occur in any place, and it has de- 

 cidedly that appearance so far as it is at present exposed. 

 The first opportunity that I have, it is my intention to 

 obtain the consent of his Grace, and do all that I can 

 to solve this interesting question of the passage of the 

 carboniferous strata into the Permian, which has not yet 

 been done in Great Britain. 



At present, I have not been able to satisfy myself that 

 the thick sandstone of Knotty Holm and Penton is of the 



