61 
miles above Sedbergli, a good section may be seen, where it 
occupies the whole of a cliff 50 or 60 feet high, and it can be 
examined in many other places. It is a coarse red con- 
glomerate throughout. It rests unconformably upon the 
Coniston grits — the equivalents of the Wenlock — and does 
not, in this locality, pass into the carboniferous limestone. 
3. Kendal. — Near Kendal there are several patches, 
once, in all probabilitj^, continuous, resting unconformably 
upon the Bannisdale slates (Lower Ludlow and Wenlock 
shale). The conglomerate is interstratified with red sand- 
stones, and is well seen in the river Mint, about two miles 
N.E. of Kendal. Lying conformably above it, and sepa- 
rated from it by thin shales and sandy limestones, are thick- 
bedded, grey carboniferous limestones. 
4. Tehay and Shap. — This is perhaps the most instructive 
region for studying these conglomerates in their connection 
with the overlying limestone. The series may be seen in 
ascending order by proceeding N. up the Birk Beck. The 
lowest beds consist of red conglomerate dipping N.E. resting 
unconformably upon the Bannisdale slates. Further N. the 
conglomerate becomes somewhat finer, has a light grey 
matrix, and is interstratified with coarse, false-bedded thin 
sandstones. Above these are fine whitish sandstones, marked 
with dark spots. Dr. Nicholson, who calls nearly all the 
beds below the limestone "upper old red," classes all the 
above as " lower" division. Above the light coloured sandstone 
occur beds of red sandstone, and red sandy shale, which the 
same author calls " middle." These are followed by beds of 
conglomerate and sandstone, which he classes as ''upper," 
and in which he has found the remains of coal plants. They 
are succeeded conformably by the " Dun limestone." Pro- 
fessor Harkness has estimated the thickness of these Birk 
Beck beds at 270 feet. Further N. they are much thinner, 
and the whole series may be seen in section in the railway 
