﻿S66 ORDER OF SUCCESSION OF THE MANX SLATES. [May I905. 



IV. The Position oe the Lonan and Niarbyl Flags. 



The rocks, the description of which has just been concluded, are 

 surrounded on their east and west sides by another series of rocks, 

 which have been called Lonan Flags on the east side, and Marbyl 

 Flags on the west side. Another portion is left as ' unseparated,' 

 in other words is left unmapped. Nevertheless, Mr. Lamplugh 

 says that it is more probable that the contorted grits and flags so 

 largely developed at the lower levels of the island, pass as a highly- 

 folded platform, beneath the argillaceous mass out of which most 

 of the central hills are carved. 



From this conclusion we must omit all those portions coloured 

 with a common tint and marked a which includes these flags, and 

 confine the statement to those which are coloured and marked a 1 . 

 As these latter are not directly connected with the Schistose Breccia, 

 their position is not immediately important ; but that there are 

 portions of the former group overlying the Schistose Breccia and 

 its associates, is shown in many places, and it seems to me that 

 they are part and parcel of the latter group. 



The evidence regarding the latter group is as follows : — 



(1) On the west side of the vertical Agneash Grit which forms 

 Maughold Head there is comparatively low ground, in which at the 

 sea-side there is massive material, colour-banded and obliquely 

 cleaved, nearly horizontal ; at Port Mooar there is the same kind, 

 almost like Lias, becoming folded inland ; higher up, by Ballajora, 

 is a quarry, with characteristic flags of Lonan type (coloured 

 as Agneash), dipping west at 40° ; on the coast-region between 

 Port-e-Myllin and Maughold Head, is a quarry showing straight folds 

 and undulating surfaces, with uncleaved slates and grits ; and nearer 

 Maughold is a slaty stone -quarry, all of which resemble in no way 

 the members before enumerated. 



(2) At the great quarry near Ramsey, where the mountain-road 

 turns up from the plain, some mongrel-rock is seen, dipping away 

 from the Schistose Breccia behind it ; and in Skyhill, the upper part 

 shows well-bedded schists of Lonan type, with the Schistose Breccia 

 passing beneath from side to side. 



(3) At the Sulby-Glen great crag, we have the ' contorted grits 

 and flags ' before noticed overlying the great mass of Schistose 

 Breccia ; on the other side of the valley, they are seen by the road- 

 side still highly contorted; and in the great quarry by Gob-y- 

 Yolley they are repeated in the same style where the contortions 

 guide us, whence they continue bed after bed (no doubt contorted 

 on a large scale) to form the high hills as far as Ballaugh and 

 beyond: these might be called the Sulby Flags. Above the 

 breccia-bed at Druidale we enter this series, which continues far 

 away to the distant hills of Sartfell and Freeoghane. 



(4) Above the railway, near Lady-Port, where it crosses the road, 

 slaty grits and flags with no relation to Agneash Grit form long 

 bands at a lower level, where the Schistose Breccia occurs still lower, 

 between these grits and flags and the Barrule Slate. 



