Abstract
The origin of the West Cumberland haematites is one of those unsettled problems that have exercised the minds of geologists and miners for more than half a century. Theories have been evolved, but not one can claim general acceptance. It is not my purpose to discuss these theories here, but the consideration of one of them was directly responsible for the examination of the reddened Carboniferous rocks that form the subject of this paper. This theory, first advocated by J. G. Goodchild and later supported by Dr. B. Smith, may be stated briefly thus: The New Red Sandstone rocks were the immediate source of the haematites. From these rocks the iron was carried in solution to lower levels by the downward percolation of meteoric waters. The theory had the merit of explaining, not only the haematite deposits of the Carboniferous Limestone of West Cumberland, many of which occur beneath the New Red Sandstone Series, but also the reddened Carboniferous strata frequently found in North-Western England, beneath and fringing the base of the Permo-Triassic rocks.
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