Page:The Geologist, volume 5.djvu/88

68 a similar dip. These last-named strata were overlapped by the Trias, which dips to the south-west at an angle of 12°.

At Heaton Mersey the following section was met with:— The Permian beds were cut off by a fault near the railway station at Heaton Norris (first noticed by Mr. Hull, of the Geological Survey), which brought in the Trias. This rock occupied the district between that town and Goyt's Hall, in the Marple valley, where the lower part of the middle coal-measures was seen in nearly a vertical position.

The author considered Mr. Howard's sand delf to be a likely place for ascertaining whether a coal-field worth working existed under the town of Stockport.

The next was a section made by Mr. John Wood, at Medlock Vale, between Waterhouses, near Ashton-under-Lyne, and Manchester. It was as follows:—

What these coal-measures were, whether above or under the Bradford Four-feet Mine, it was at present impossible to say; but it was to be hoped that some mine would be met with to enable us to determine the value of the great tract of coal-measures lying between Ashton-under-Lyne, Oldham, Middleton, and Manchester. Mr. Wood had done more than any other gentleman to clear up this point, and it was to be desired that he should meet with a good seam of coal, both for his own sake and that of the public.

The third section mentioned was at the sugar-works of Messrs. Fryer and Co., in Chester Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester. The following beds were there met with:—

The limestones in the last-named strata contained specimens of Microconchus carbonarius and scales of Palæoniscus, which clearly proved them to be similar beds to those of the upper coal-field at Ardwick, to which they bear every resemblance in physical character.

The occurrence of coal-measures on the south side of the city of Manchester is quite new and of great importance, showing that such strata at