XLIX.— Notes on the Correlation of the Lower Carboniferous Rocks of England and Scotland

Abstract

The object of the following paper is to show that the group of Lower Scottish Limestones about Dunbar and round the Midlothian Coalfield does not represent any part of the Mountain Limestone of Yorkshire, but is the equivalent of the upper part of the Yoredale Series of Phillips, while the Edge Coals and Upper Limestones of Midlothian represent a series of beds which in Yorkshire and Northumberland lie above the true Yoredale Series of Phillips, and which were included by him in the Millstone Grit. It necessarily follows from this correlation that the lower part of Phillips’ Yoredale Series, together with the Scar or Mountain Limestone of Yorkshire, are represented in Scotland by the Calciferous Sandstone Series, which is mainly a fresh-water deposit. This correlation of the Lower Carboniferous rocks of the North of England with those of Scotland was made in the year 1881, after an examination of parts of the coast of Haddingtonshire and Berwickshire in company with two of my colleagues, Mr H. H. Howell, now Director of the Geological Survey, and the late Mr W. Topley, who both accepted at the time the general views here stated. Mr Topley thought them of so much importance that he wished to join with me in writing an elaborate paper on this correlation, and I drew up some notes on the subject, but for various reasons the paper was never completed or published. However, the principal results have been from time to time orally communicated to several of my