GEOLOGY 



THE Geology of Lancashire is of such a character that probably no 

 other county in England can so well show the mercantile develop- 

 ment due to its mineral wealth. The Furness and Ulverston 

 districts with their rich deposits of hematite have furnished an 

 abundance of iron ore, and the rich Coal measures which cover a large 

 portion of the county have alone rendered possible the creation of huge 

 manufacturing towns crowded with factories and workshops, whilst the low 

 Triassic plains, with overlying superficial deposits, which form the seaboard 

 from Liverpool to Fleetwood yield a soil well adapted for agriculture. The 

 Carboniferous Limestone and Millstone Grit are admirably fitted for road- 

 making and building purposes, and many of the shales and under-clays asso- 

 ciated everywhere with the coal, and the thick layers of boulder clay, are 

 equally useful in the manufacture of bricks and coarse pottery. Many of the 

 large towns are crowded so closely together as to be practically continuous, 

 and it is no fanciful figure of speech to say that at least the southern half 

 of Lancashire is one great workshop. 



The general sequence of formations is as follows : — 



Blown Sand 



Alluvium . 



Glacial Drift . . Boulder Clay and Sands. 



•p • f Keuper Marls and Sandstone. 



(.Bunter Sandstone and Pebble Beds. 

 Permian / Sandstones, Marls, and thin Limestones. 



( Magnesian Limestone. 



rCoal Measures. 

 Carboniferous . . < Millstone Grit. 



(^Mountain Limestone Series. 



{Bannisdale Flags. 

 Coniston Grits and Flags. 

 Stockdale Shales, 

 r Coniston Limestone Series. 

 Ordovician . . -i Borrowdale Volcanic Series. 



[_Skiddaw Slates (in part Cambrian ?). 



PALMOZOIC 



The only exposures or the older Palasozoic rocks (Ordovician and Silurian) in Lancashire are 

 limited to the Ulverston, Coniston, and Cartmel area, w^hich is geographically a part of the Lake 

 District. They consist of a small patch of Skiddawr Slates, the Borrowdale Volcanic series, and 

 the Coniston Limestones seen in the neighbourhood of Ireleth, and a much larger northern area 

 covered by the Stockdale Shales, Coniston Flags and Grits, and the Bannisdale Flags. 



ORDOVICIAN 



SKIDDAW SLATES 



The Skiddaw Slates, which occupy a considerable area in the adjacent county of Cumberland, 

 consist of from 10,000 to 12,000 feet of dark grey slates, mudstones, and grits, which have 

 undergone so much alteration since they were deposited that the task of determining their general 



