LIASSIC ROCKS OF THE CARLISLE BASIN". 



289 



thickness "being absent. On the other hand, in no other formation 

 at all likely to be found underlying the Lias at Orton would " veins " 

 of a white substance be found. 



But if the Gypseous Shales are neither seen nor recorded as 

 having been bored through east of Great Orton, it may bo asked 

 why I have treated them as older than the formation which directly 

 overlies the St.-Bees Sandstone north and east of Carlisle. On this 

 point the evidence certainly leaves something to be desired, though 

 there seems to me to be no doubt on which side the balance inclines. 

 As will shortly be seen, the bed in question (which I have called 

 the Kirklinton Sandstone) rests unconformably on that of St. Bees ; 

 while there is neither evidence nor presumption of any kind in favour 

 of the existence of unconformity between the St.-Bees Sandstone 

 and the Gypseous Shales. Again, the presence of gypsum is, so far 

 as it goes, a presumption of Permian affinities, gypsum being found, 

 as I have already mentioned, in the shales underlying the St. Bees 

 stone, while it is not seen in any of the higher beds of this district. 



Leaving the almost sectionless district west of the Caldew and 

 Eden till the time comes to treat of the Lias, it will now be most 

 convenient to discuss the sections seen in the first-named stream 

 about Dalston and Cummersdale. 



St.-Bees Sandstone is visible on the Caldew at Brackenhow and 

 Buckabank, and here and there nearly as far down the stream as 

 the outfall of the Pow Beck at Dalston. Opposite Dalston Hall 

 the trap dyke, well known at Barrock Eell and Armathwaite, is 

 slightly shown on the right bank, at the spot at which river and 

 railway begin to run side by side. This is the most westerly expo- 

 sure of this dyke in Cumberland ; but as I am informed by Mr. J. 

 G. Goodchild that there is no ground for supposing (judging from 

 his knowledge of it in the Eden-valley district) that it is also a fault 

 of any magnitude, if a fault at all, I need say no more about it 

 here. 



A few yards below the dyke, and on the same bank of the river, 

 is a low cliff of greyish sandstone, and it seems to me that in this 

 grey rock we probably have the uppermost beds of the St. Bees. The 

 boring near Abbey Town shows that directly below the Gypseous 

 Shales, and above the typical St. -Bees Sandstone, are about 40 feet 

 of sandstone and sandy shale, mainly grey in colour. ISTo sandstone 

 like this is seen higher up the stream, and the rock next seen below 

 at Cummersdale is evidently not St.-Bees Sandstone at all. In 

 addition, Itr. J. G. Goodchild considers the beds at and below 

 Buckabank to be higher beds in the St. Bees than any he has seen 

 in the Eden-valley district, where the uppermost are cut off by the 

 Penine fault. 



The next section, that adjoining the rifle-butts at Cummersdale, 

 disappoints any expectations that may have been formed of at last 

 seeing the Gypseous Shales. Strange to say, they are nowhere visible 

 at the surface. The rock at the rifle-butts is a very soft, red, shaly- 

 looking sandstone, without any sign whatever of the presence of 

 gypsum. Similar rock may be seen here and there in the river- 



