PEOCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 
469 
organic remains of these two formations, probably more genera and species 
will be found to be common to both than is at present supposed ; but in all 
cases where the remains of Stiginaria and Spirovbis carhonarius (Microcon- 
chus) have been found in the strata, the author has termed them Carbonife- 
rous. In the absence of organic remains, which is generally the rule aiid 
not the exception, the Permian character of the strata has been decided by 
the mechanical character of the deposits and the order of superposition, 
the beds of breccia and the soft red sandstone generally affording pretty 
good evidence of the Permian age of the strata over a great extent of 
country, and varying with the character of the older rocks found in situ in the 
district. If the Permian beds are taken as the Moat sandstone, the red shales 
with gypsum and four breccias lying in soft red sandstone at Canobie 
and Eiddings, their identification is pretty easy ; but in continuing them 
downwards into the upper coal-measures, or in tracing their boundary up- 
wards into the Trias, there is greater difficulty, as natural sectfons showing 
the passage of one into the other are not often with ; but he considers the 
soft red sandstone of Longtown, West Linton, Eockliffe, and Dalstontobe 
of Triassic age, and covered by the waterstones and red marls of Carlisle, 
and these, in their turn to the west, overlaid by the lias of Quarry GiU 
and Oughterby. 
The Knotty Holm sandstone and a similar rock at Penton, especially in 
their lower portions, reminded the author of the Whitehaven sandstone, 
and it is possible that they may be of the same geological age as that rock, 
but for the present he has included them in the upper coal-measures. 
In the valleys of the Esk and Liddel he described some interesting Per- 
mian sections, and detailed at length the particulars of the strata found 
over a distance of above twenty miles from the upper coal-measures at 
Canobie to the same beds, as seen in the Eaw Beck, near Dalston, where 
the following strata are met with, viz. : — 1. Red and variegated clays, 
13 ft. 1 in. ; 2. Bed of limestone with spirorbis, etc., 1 ft. ; 3. Eed clays, 
10 ft. ; 4. Purple shales containing stigmaria, 80 ft. ; 5. Soft red sandstone, 
40 ft. ; 6. Purple shales, 16 ft. 2 in. After tracing the.Shawk sandstone by 
Westward Chapel, Wigton, West Newton, near Allonby, to Maryport, he 
passed over the West Cumberland coal-field, and followed it by St. Bees 
to the south of Cumberland, as far as Drigg Cross. He described at 
length the Permian strata of Barrowmouth and Ben How, south of 
Whitehaven. At the former place the beds occurred in the following de- 
scending order, viz. : — 1. Fine-grained red sandstone, laminated and 
ripple-marked, same as that seen at Moat, Glenzier, Cove, Shawk, West- 
ward, Maryport, and other places, which may be conveniently termed the 
St. Bees sandstone, fully 1000 ft. ; 2. Shaly marls, 30 ft. ; 3. Eed marls 
containing granular gypsum, 29 ft. 6 in. ; Magnesian limestone of a cream 
colour, containing sliells of Bakevellia and Schizodus, 10 ft. 6 in. ; Breccia 
composed of pebbles of coal-measures, sandstones, and slate rocks, 3 ft. ; 
Eed and purple sandstones, 110 ft. ; Conglomerate sandstone full of 
white quartz pebbles, with peroxide of iron and volcanic ash, containing 
common coal-plants, 30 ft. The two last beds have been long known as 
the Whitehaven Sandstone, and Professor Sedgwick many years since 
classed them as Lower Eed Sandstone. After further investigation the 
author is inclined to indorse this opinion, as .he cannot find any difference 
between these sandstones and his Lower Permian beds of Astley, Bedford, 
and Moira, near Ashby-de-la-Zouch. These singular sandstones lying uu- 
conformably to the breccia above and the coal-measures underneath, he 
thinks will be found to be the English representatives of the Lower Eoth- 
liegendes of the Germans. 
