494 
The Cumberland and Westmoreland 
comes the Old Red Sandstone, with its conglomerates, wbic^i 
covers a very small area of these counties. Then came the 
various calcareous rocks ; the Mountain Limestone and the 
Carboniferous Series, and after another volcanic period, the 
tranquil deposition of the New Red Sandstone began. This latter 
formation is perhaps the most important, agriculturally, in the 
two counties. In Cumberland it extends over almost all the 
country north of the mountains ; it fills the vale of the Edea in 
both counties, and there is moreover an important tract in the 
neighbourhood of the west coast, extending from WhitehaveiJ 
southwards to the borders of Lancashire. The valuable deposits 
of haematite are found in connection with the Carbonilerous 
Limestone, and the Whitehaven Coalfield, which is worked 
beneath the sandstones and limestone, is an important feature 
in the industrial view of the district. 
The superficial geology of this part of the country has latelj 
received the attention of the Geological Survey, and a good 
part of the district has now been mapped with this object. If 
any readers are curious on this point they can therefore now 
gain most valuable information from the courteous authorities 
in Jermyn Street, and I regret that I am precluded by the 
question of expense from adding to this Report a map of 
the country showing some of the principal features of these 
deposits. But, though the geological characteristics no doubt 
form some indication of the nature of the county, what Mr. 
Dickinson stated in his able report on the farming of Cmtn- 
berland (before alluded to) is perfectly correct: "Notwitli- 
standing all that has been written by scientific men on the 
geology of these counties, none have satisfactorily shovtrn that 
the soils, generally speaking, convey anything like a correct 
indication of the underlying rocks. Where the rocks are near 
the surface, of course the connection is more intimate ; but so 
much of the low-lying parts, and some at a considerable eleva- 
tion, are so deeply covered with the diluvium conveyed from 
distant parts that, in very many places, the surface conveys n« 
adequate idea of what rocks may be expected beneath. Where 
this diluvium prevails, it covers all rocks alike from a depth of 
a few inches to some hundreds of feet. Nearly the whole of the 
New Red Sandstone, the coal-fields, the Carboniferous Lime- 
stone of the lower county, and the skirts of the older rocks, are 
covered with it. In most parts of the county [Cumberland], 
and especially in the west, it is largely intermixed or overlaid 
with a compact clay which is very retentive of water. Over <-t 
great extent this clay (in which more or less of the rounded 
drift-"-ravel is imbedded ) forms tlie subsoil and the inter- 
mediate and sometimes alternating strata, from the soil t« the 
