File:The Quarterly journal of the Geological Society of London (12961560064).jpg

178
PROCEEDIITGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIEXr. .Feb. 10,
-to
Si
O .H *'
3. Dividing ridge of Lower Carhoniferous Rocks (see fig. 2).
1 now come to the explanation which seems
to me the most probable, and one which
is borne out by an examination of the phy-
sical geology of the North of England, —
namely, the existence of a concealed ridge,
or harrier, of Lower Carhoniferous rocks,
dividing the hydrograj.hical areas helonging
to the Lancastrian and Salojc.ian types re-
spectively, and the consequent deposition of
the contemporaneous heds in two separate
hasins.
In a recent communication to this So-
M illl/ll'Jif ciety* I have shown that at the close of the
Carboniferous period the Carboniferous beds
of Lancashire were thrown into a series of
folds, the axes of which range nearly east
'o and west, and are parallel to, and con-
'^ tinuous with, those which influence the
same beds in Yorkshire as they approach
-g and are lost beneath the Magnesian Lime-
S stone, as originally pointed out by Professor
rS Phillips. This system of disturbances I
§ g ventured to call " the Pendle System," be-
g g cause it is well illustrated by the direction
^'■% and flexures of the Pendle range of hills,
§ '^ running in an east-north-east direction. I
^ ^ rg also showed that there was a nearly parallel
fl ^ g line of upheaval to the south of this range,
"o "S rS passing along the valley of Rossendale, the
g j^ CI direction of which is very nearly east and
■^ 'S © west ; and to this I applied the term " Ros-
° r^'M sendale anticlinal."
.=s ^ J When we proceed further south into the
I ^ ^ main coal-field of South Lancashire, we
Ph q have no evidence of a repetition of these
Pl; q foldings (except, perhaps, as represented by a
few east-and-west faults) ; but when, foUow-
' ing the line of the Carboniferous rocks along
the margin of the plain of Cheshire, we arrive in the district bor-
dering the valley of the river Dane, near Congleton — we again
have evidence of a very powerful line of upheaval lying to the
northward of Congleton Edge, and dividing the Cheshire coal-field
from that of North Staffordshire. The general arrangement of the
beds here will be better understood from the accompanpng section,
in which minor details are omitted (see fig. 1). The section is
drawn from north to south in a line nearly parallel to the " Red-

• " On the Eelative Ages of the Lading Physical Features and Lines of Eleva-
  

tion of the Carboniferous District of Lancashire and Yorkshire," Quart. Journ.
Geol. Soc. vol. xxiv. p. 323.
55