Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 4.djvu/126

 of Whitchaven that the upper beds of the coal measures lie under a stratum of magnesian limestone. On the limestone is immediately superimposed the immense deposit of red sandstone that forms the entire thickness of the cliff from this point to St. Bees Head.

The dip of the coal measures and magnesian limestone is nearly south-west towards St. Bees, which brings them under the red sandstone at the point of junction above described, where there is also a large gypsum quarry in the lowest part of the red sandstone. It would not be within the object of the present paper, (which is to describe the district between Melmerby and Murton pike,) to enter into the detail of these sections or the general history of this stratum. These however lead to a conclusion almost inevitable, that the Carlisle red sandstone is the same with that of the vales of Cheshire, of Salop, Lancashire and York; the matrix of our great quarries of gypsum and rock salt; and a deposition more recent than that magnesian lime which is incumbent on the upper strata of the principal English Coal-fields.