contains gypsum as in numerous other places on the banks of the Eden and the Petteril, and in the great valley of Carlisle.
At the distance above mentioned the sandstone abruptly ceases, the water course (a ravine about 30 feet in depth) which till now had traversed the red sandstone in a direction east and west, suddenly turns at a right angle to the south, and continues its bearing exactly along the line of junction, having its east and west banks composed of materials very different.
At the point where the water course turns suddenly to the south the sandstone abuts abruptly against a dark compact greenstone, red externally, and very ferruginous.
This last rock with its varieties forms the east, and the sandstone the west cheek of the ravine for a quarter of a mile up the stream southwards, the excavation being so exactly along the line of junction that no contact or order of superposition can be distinguished.
Here, at about a mile above the village along the Beck (the name of the spot is Melmerby Lane End,) the greenstone on the east bank becomes mixed confusedly with considerable masses of slate, and the channel ceases to have the red sandstone on its west Bank, which becomes occupied by shattered fragments of limestone and coal measures.
These last beds extend from hence in a line nearly parallel to the slate and greenstone ranges, being interposed between them and the red sandstone of the plain for nearly three miles south from Melmerby Lane End towards Kirkland, [1] but are so dislocated and confused that the coal seams (which are very thin, often less than a foot,) are in many places quite vertical, and extracted by sinking perpendicularly downwards as in a well; but they occur no where
- ↑ See Section, Plate 5, No. 2, letter A.
