1864..
MURCHISON AND HARKNESS PERMIAN.
149
which may be regarded as the type-section of this series of rocks*.
In this section the base of the series consists of breccias, locally
called " brockrams," composed, for the most part, of unaltered frag-
ments of Carboniferous Limestone. To these there succeeds a thick
mass of red sandstones, upon which are superposed other breccias
Pig. 1. — Generalized Section of the Permian Rocks of the Eden Valley.
w
Inferior
unaltered
Breccia.
1 . Penrith Sandstone (Lower Permian). 2. Hilton plant-beds (Middle Permian).
3. Corby or St. Bees Sandstone (Upper 4. Lower Silurian.
Permian).
having red sandstones intercalated in them. The higher breccias,
locally termed " rotten brockrams," are also to a considerable extent
made up of limestone -fragments, but which, in every instance, are
converted into dolomite. The inferior unaltered breccias are not
seen in Cumberland in connexion with the Penrith sandstones

and
in Westmoreland they are confined to the district west of Appleby,
where alone the lowest portion of this series is seen. The succeed-
ing sandstones, which spread themselves over the whole of the Lower
Permian area, possess peculiar mineral characters. They are, almost
exclusively, made up of grains of quartz, many of which retain the
facets of the original quartz-crystals, reflecting solar rays therefrom.
The quartz grains are of more than usual size, as compared with
that of the particles of other siliceous sandstones, are angular or
subangular, and give to the rocks which are composed of them the
nature of a very fine-grained breccia. Owing to the abundance of
oxide of iron, these sandstones have commonly a bright-red colour

but occasionally perfectly white strata are associated with the red
beds, the absence of oxide of iron alone distinguishing the two.
These white sandstones are largely quarried to the east and north-
east of Penrith, and many new houses are built of them.
The higher breccias, " rotten brockrams," like those appertaining
to the base of the series, are, in the Yale of the Eden, of local occur-
rence. They are well seen in the Hilton-beck, a stream descending
from Roman Fell to the Eden, which traverses along the dip the
greater part of the Permian rocks of Westmoreland

and they also

Op. cit. supra, p.