File:The Quarterly journal of the Geological Society of London (12894977463).jpg

1864..
MTJRCHISON AND HARKNESS PERMIAN.
151
mian rocks occur. This area, which is altogether detached from
that of the Yale of the Eden and the Great Cumberland Plain, has
been noticed by Professor Sedgwick* and Mr. Binney f. The Penrith
sandstones here are very thin — not more than three feet on an
average. Their dimensions are, however, very irregular, as they
have been deposited on the eroded surface of a purple Carboniferous
sandstone on which they repose (see fig. 2). In lithological cha-
racter these sandstones resemble the magnesian breccias of Hilton-
beck, and, as in them, the limestone-fragments have usually the
potato-stone feature. The only portion of the Penrith sandstones
represented here are the highest beds.
Fig. 2. — Section at Barrowmouth, near Whitehaven.
a. Upper Permian, or St. Bees Sandstone.
b. Red and green marls with gypsum.
c. Yellow magnesian limestone with fossils.
d. Breccia of e, being the Upper member of the Lower Permian, passing into c.
e. Coal-sandstone.
In no other localities in Cumberland or "Westmoreland have we any
exhibition of the Penrith sandstones, or lowest member of the Permian
group. There is, on the Cumberland coast south of St. Bees, a red
sandstone which has been referred to by Professor Sedgwick. This,
however, is not well exposed, but it probably belongs to the highest
portion of the Permian series to be subsequently alluded to.
In the district of Furness, in Lancashire, the representatives of
the Lower Permian sandstones occur, but only to a slight extent,
yet under circumstances of very great interest.
c. Furness area.- — The Furness Eailway, at Park, from about a
mile and a half to two miles north of Furness Abbey, exhibits the
lowest of the Permian rocks. A section opened out by the rail-
road-cutting is here in part through Carboniferous Limestone, which
forms the lowest rock seen. Reposing upon this limestone is a mass
of a peculiar character, consisting of angular fragments of limestone,
partially cemented together in the higher part, but having inter-
spaces between the fragments in the lower portion. This peculiar
limestone-breccia is locally known as " Crab rock."

Geol. Trans., 2nd Series, vol. iv. p. 395.
t Mem. of Lit. and Phil. Soc. of Manchester, vol. xii. p.