98 
being covered up by reddish coloured till. In the shales are 
found two or three species of ammonites and several bivalve 
shells. Ironstone nodules, also containing bivalve shells, 
occur in the shales. The dip of the strata is difficult to 
determine, but at one point I made it to be to west south-west, 
at an angle of 23°. 
Mr. Robinson, an intelligent well sinker, informed us that 
in the course of his searches for water, he had become well 
acquainted with the dark shales and limestone in which 
people had long been searching for coal. This valuable 
substance, he had often heard, had been found in the 
neighbourhood, but he had not seen it, and never expected to 
do so. At Wiggonby a bore-hole had been put down forty 
yards into the dark shales. At Bank House the same beds 
had been seen near to the surface. They had also been met 
with at Flatt and Nut Gill. At Oughterby Pastures they 
are to be seen in the water holes which have been dug in 
them. At Orton, Sir W. Briscoe bored in them. Mr. 
Robinson thought that they had also been met with both in 
Crofton and Aikton. Thus, from his statement, this lias 
deposit occupies a considerable district, extending under the 
rising ground lying between Crofton and Orton on the south, 
and the Solway on the north, comprising Aikton, Thornby, 
Wiggonby, Oughterby, and probably other places on the 
rising ground lying between the Maryport and Carlisle, and 
the Port Carlisle and Carlisle Railways. As the district is 
covered with a thick deposit of till, the boundaries of the lias 
will be difficult to trace with certainty ; but it appears to lie 
on the water-stones and red marls of the Trias, seen in the 
river Eden, near Carlisle, and which appears to dip somewhat 
in the direction of the lias described in this communication. 
It seems somewhat singular that a comparatively large 
extent of lias should have so long escaped observation, but 
it is no doubt owing to the district being so thickly enveloped 
with till, and aflFording so few natural sections. 
