UC-NRLF 
 
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 [and. 
 
 MEMOIRS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 GEOLOGICAL SUEYEY 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN 
 
 AND OP THE 
 
 MUSEUM OF PRACTICAL GEOLOGY. 
 
 c 
 
 v//: 
 
 THE GEOLOGY OF 
 
 EAST LOTHIAN, 
 
 IKCTLUDINC PARTS OF THE COUNTIES OF EDINBURGH AND BERWICK 
 (MAPS 33, 34, & 41,) 
 
 BY 
 
 H. H. HOWELL, F.G.S., 
 ARCHIBALD GEIKIE, F.R.S., &c., 
 
 AND 
 
 JOHN YOUNG, M.D., F.R.S.E. 
 
 APPENDIX ON THE FOSSILS BY J. W. SALTER, F.G.S., A.L.S. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, READER, AND DYER; 
 
 AN1> BY 
 
 EDWARD STANFORD, 6, CHARING CROSS, S.W. 
 
 1866. 
 Price Two Shillings, 
 
I UNIVERSITY OP 
 V CALIFORNIA./ 
 
 EARTH 
 
 SCIENCES 
 LIBRARY 
 
 EXCHANGE 
 
33. Scotland. 
 
 MEMOIRS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 GEOLOGICAL SUEYEY 
 
 OF 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN 
 
 AND OF THE 
 
 MUSEUM OF PRACTICAL GEOLOGY. 
 
 THE GEOLOGY OP 
 
 EAST LOTHIAN, 
 
 INCLUDING PARTS OF THE COUNTIES OF EDINBURGH AND BERWICK 
 (MAPS 33, 34, & 41,) 
 
 BY 
 
 H. H. HOWELL, F.G.S., 
 
 . \ 
 
 ARCHIBALD GEIKIE, F.R.S., &c., 
 
 AND 
 
 JOHN YOUNG, M.D., F.R.S.E. 
 
 APPENDIX ON THE FSSlLfe^B^ J. WV-LTER, F.G.S., A.L.S. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, READER, AND DYER; 
 
 AND BY 
 
 EDWARD STANFORD, 6, CHARING CROSS, S.W. 
 
 1866. 
 Price Two Shillings. 
 
flf* 
 
T . 3&AMC&:' 
 
 NOTICE. 
 
 IN 1854, the Ordnance Maps of part of the Eastern 
 Counties being either finished or far advanced, the Geolo- 
 gical Survey was commenced in Scotland by myself in 
 the district to which this Memoir refers. I considered that 
 the Coast Sections of Silurian, Old Red Sandstone, and 
 Carboniferous Rocks, between St. Abb's Head and Bel- 
 haven Bay, would give a clue to the structure of the 
 interior of the country. Accordingly I settled at Dunbar, 
 and after examining the cliffs between the Hirst Rocks 
 and Belhaven, commenced to map the formations that 
 stretch along the coast and from the adjoining hills, and 
 nearly completed the survey as far south as Oldham- 
 stocks and Dunbar Common. In succeeding years (along 
 with work in adjoining sheets) the remainder of the sheet 
 (amounting to about two-thirds of the area) was com- 
 pleted by Mr. Howell and Mr. A. Geikie, and the whole 
 was finished and published in 1 860, immediately after the 
 publication of the one-inch Ordnance Map. 
 
 . I had intended to have written that part of the Memoir 
 which relates to the area mapped by myself, but being 
 much engaged with other survey work, and ^knowing from 
 frequent inspection of the district that the structure of 
 the whole country was thoroughly known by my colleagues, 
 I felt perfect confidence in their ability to do justice to 
 the subject without any assistance from me. 
 
 A. C. RAMSAY, 
 
 Local Director for Great Britain. 
 Geological Survey Office, 
 April 1866. 
 
 13359. A 2 
 
C O N T E N T S. 
 
 Page 
 Introductory Notice by A. C. RAMSAY, Local Director. 
 
 CHAPS. I. V., by A. GEIKIE - - 5 to 52 
 
 VI. & VII., by H. H. HOWELL - 53 to 62 
 
 VIII,, by J. YOUNG - 62 to 68 
 
 CHAP. I. Physical Features of the District and General Descrip- 
 tion of the Rocks - 5 
 II. Lower Silurian - - - - - 8 
 
 III. Intrusive rocks in Lower Silurian Series. Metamor- 
 
 phism - - - - - 14 
 
 IV. Upper Old Red Sandstone - 17 
 V. Lower Carboniferous (Calciferous) Sandstones, Shales, 
 
 &c. - 27 
 
 VI. Carboniferous Limestone Series - - 53 
 
 VII. East Lothian Coalfield - 57 
 
 VIII. Drift and Superficial Deposits - 62 
 
 Note by Sir Roderick I. Murchison - - - - 68 
 
 List of Works on Geology of East Lothian and North Berwick - 69 
 
 APPENDIX ON THE FOSSILS, by J. W. SALTER - 70 
 
GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN 
 
 (INCLUDING PARTS OF THE COUNTIES OF 
 EDINBURGH AND BERWICK). 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE DISTRICT AND GENERAL DESCRIPTION 
 
 OF THE ROCKS. 
 
 THE area represented by the present Map contains about 378 square 
 miles. It embraces nearly the whole of Haddingtonshire (or East 
 Lothian), with the eastern parts of Edinburghshire (or Mid Lothian), 
 and the northern borders of Berwickshire. A line drawn from the 
 south-west to the north-east corner of the sheet divides the district into 
 two nearly equal but very distinct portions, and this line, running along 
 the flank of the Lammerrnuir Hills, will be afterwards seen to correspond 
 with the trend of a long north-easterly fault. The north-western half 
 is for the most part a low-lying rich agricultural tract of country. It 
 rises, indeed, into one cluster of hills, known as the Garltons, between 
 Haddington and the sea ; but as these nowhere reach a height of 600 
 feet, and as they are composed of various felspathic rocks giving rise to 
 a rich soil, they do not interfere with the generally fertile agricultural 
 character of the district. With the exception of the tract covered by 
 the Garlton Hills and their neighbouring igneous masses, such as Trap- 
 rain Law and North-Berwick Law, the ground undulates gently from 
 the flank of the Lammermuir chain towards the Firth of Forth. The 
 valleys are little more than long confluent hollows, which range on the 
 whole from south-west to north-east. This feature is especially to be 
 seen among the ridges of the Garltons. There the sheets of felspathic 
 trap, having a general low westerly dip, are channelled into long troughs, 
 gullies, or gentler depressions, running in the direction just named. 
 These hollows sometimes run along the hill- tops and are often quite 
 dry, save of course in wet weather, when they serve as channels for the 
 rain. They everywhere give evidence by that peculiar worn, rounded, 
 and flowing outline, that they have suffered from the abrading agencies 
 of the glacial period, and that the ice which smoothed them must have 
 moved from west to east. 
 
 In this lowland half of the district there is only one main stream, the 
 Tyne, which rises in the south-west corner, near the end of the Lam- 
 mermuir chain, and after flowing to the north-east parallel to these 
 hills enters the sea a little to the west of Dunbar. This river receives 
 the north-western drainage of the Lammermuirs and the brooks flowing 
 from the southern and eastern sides of the Garltons. Hence only a few 
 small rivulets are needed to carry off the drainage towards the sea on 
 the north-west. 
 
 The other or south-eastern half of the district presents a totally 
 different aspect, and the line between it and the agricultural plains just 
 described is almost as sharply marked off as the corresponding boundary 
 between the geological colours on the map. To the south-east of the 
 rich champagne tract, the Lammermuir Hills rise steeply into a line of 
 bare, smooth, green, or heathy heights. Seen from the plains these hills 
 have a long undulating summit, with an average level of between 1,500 
 and 1,600 feet above the sea, and they seem to encroach upon the low 
 grounds at their base, now standing out in bulky promontories, now 
 
GEOLOGY OP EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 retiring into 'shady balys,* tikc ; the 'high and steep winding banks that 
 bound the alluvial plain of a broad river. Standing on the north-western 
 verge of these heights, on such an eminence for example as the Lammer 
 Law (1,733 feet), the spectator sees below him, to the north and west, 
 a rolling plain of woodland and cornfields, dotted with villages and 
 mansions down to the edge of the blue frith, and stretching westward 
 beyond the crags and hills of Edinburgh. But he has only to turn 
 round to the south and east to look over a dreary expanse of bare hill- 
 top and bleak moor wide lonely pastoral uplands, with scarce any 
 further trace of human interference than here and there a sheep-drain 
 or grey cairn. Far away south, beyond the limits of this solitary region, 
 the Eildon Hills, Ruberslaw, and all the long line of the Border Hills 
 eastwards to the Cheviots, rise up with a softened outline from the 
 green vale of the Twe^d. 
 
 The Lammermuir Hills are an undulating tableland, with an inclina- 
 tion towards the south-east, but rising up, as we have seen, with a 
 steep edge from the north-west. They are not a determinate system 
 of hills with longitudinal and transverse valleys; each height melts 
 imperceptibly into its neighbours, and the hollows and ravines which 
 separate them are the work of denudation. 
 
 A glance at the map will show the form of the steep north-western 
 edge of the table-land- At the south-west end Soutra Hill is seen to 
 stand out into the plains, while the high slopes of which it is a pro- 
 jecting part retire a little on either side. To the east this recession of 
 the edge of the table-land gives rise to the bay below the Ninecairn 
 Edge. The advance of the declivity round the east side of this bay is 
 seen in the high ridge of the Lammer Law, which, projecting boldly 
 towards the plains, serves to separate the bay just mentioned from the 
 wide hollow of the Hopes Water, which it encloses on the west. From 
 the head of that valley the steep north-western slope of the* Lammer - 
 muirs runs in a singularly even course for about 10 miles, the straight 
 line being hardly interrupted, save by the valleys of the Papana Water 
 and the Shorter Burn. When it reaches, however, its most northerly 
 headland in Lothian Edge, it passes eastward into the Old Red Con- 
 glomerate tracts, where it ceases to rise with the same boldness from the 
 lower grounds, sinking by degrees as it approaches the borders of 
 Berwickshire, but rising once more into the lofty cliffs of St. Abb's 
 Head. The crest of this short steep north-westerly declivity of the 
 Lammermuirs forms in reality the line of watershed ; for the ground 
 that lies beyond it to the south-east, and forms the Lammermuir chain, 
 slopes gently down towards the Tweed. Thus the drainage from the 
 side of the Lammermuirs that faces the Forth is but slight, all the 
 main streams flowing in the opposite direction. One result of the 
 greater steepness of that side is, that the watercourses though shorter, 
 are on the whole greatly deeper and more precipitous than on the 
 longer declivity to the south-east. Around Lammer Law the ravines 
 are especially remarkable for their depth and steepness, and even on 
 the south-eastern side of this high part of the chain the watercourses 
 that open into Lauderdale, as the Kelphope and Soonhope, with their 
 tributaries, are much steeper than most of the valleys that lie further 
 eastward along the same flank of the chain. As the watershed lies so 
 near the north-western edge of these uplands, the streams that join the 
 Tweed almost seem to rise on the wrong side of the hills and to flow 
 completely across them. From Garvald to Dunse the chain is about 15 
 miles broad, and is traversed by the valley of the Whiteadder. That 
 stream rises only about a mile and a half from the base of the hills on 
 the north-west margin, so that here the watershed is distant little more 
 than a mile from the foot of the hills on the one side, while it is more 
 
PHYSICAL FEATURES AND DISTRIBUTION OF ROCKS. 7 
 
 than 13 miles from their base on the other. The drainage of the great 
 tableland of the Lammermuirs is carried off to the south-east by a 
 number of transverse valleys which have been excavated by subaerial 
 waste in the line of the long slope towaids the plain or Merse of Ber- 
 wickshire. Thus, from Soutra Hill, which stands at the south-western 
 end of the chain, two streams, the Armet Water and Brothershiels 
 Burn, take a southerly course to join the upper feeders of the Gala 
 Water. Further east a number of sma'll rivulets, which, however, 
 have in several cases carved out for themselves singularly profound 
 ravines, converge into the head of Lauderdale to form the classic 
 stream of the Leader. Of these it is enough to mention the Headshaw 
 Burn and the burns of Kelphope, Soonhope, and Whalplaw. East- 
 wards the ground is cut into an irregular' series of rudely parallel 
 ridges by the valleys of "the Watch, the Dye, the Fassney, the White- 
 adder, the Bothwell, the Monynut, and the Eye. The last stream, 
 called the Eye Water, is the only one that maintains an independent 
 course to the sea. (See Sheet 34.) Of the others the chief is the 
 Whiteadder, which swallows up the rest one by one before they leave 
 the chain of the Lammermuirs, but is itself lost in the Tweed a little 
 way above Berwick. The north-eastern or seaward termination of the 
 uplands is comparatively short, the drainage being carried off by a 
 number of small streams, of which the Biel Water, near Dunbar, and 
 the Dunglass Burn, flowing past Oldhamstocks, are the principal. 
 
 The surface of the Lammermuir uplands is singularly smooth. It 
 is coated with short heath or coarse grass, save where a mantle of peat 
 covers the hollows, or where the streams keep open their channels 
 through the bare drift or hard rocks. Except along the sides of the 
 watercourses, such a thing as a crag is unknown throughout the district. 
 Even a knoll where the rock comes to the surface is rarely seen. It 
 is only along the beds of the brooks and livulets that the geologist 
 meets with sections of the Silurian strata of which the hills are com- 
 posed. So smooth, broad, and grassy is this wide tableland that it 
 may be traversed from end to end without any solid rock being seen ; 
 and but for the distant view of the rich lowlands lying far beneath, the 
 traveller might walk for mile after mile in the belief that he is crossing 
 a piece of low moorland instead of the crest of a chain of hills some 
 1,600 feet above the sea. 
 
 . The distribution of the geological formations represented on the 
 present map corresponds closely with the grouping of these markedly 
 different types of scenery. The wide pastoral uplands coincide 
 exactly with the area occupied by the Lower Silurian grits and shales, 
 and the overlying conglomerates of the Old Red Sandstone. The 
 fertile cultivated lowlands that lie between the high grounds and the 
 firth are chiefly occupied by the various subdivisions of the carboniferous 
 system, dipping westward under the coal-basin of the Lothians. And 
 as a further illustration of how closely interwoven are the geological 
 structure and the agricultural capabilities of a country, we find that 
 the narrow strip of rich land that lies between the hill-slopes and the 
 sea, from Dunbar to Cockburnspath, is fundamentally composed of the 
 sandstones, shales, and limestones of the carboniferous series resting 
 upon and dipping away from the older and more sterile rocks of the 
 hills. It is right to observe, however, that this fertility is connected in 
 no small measure with the distribution of the boulder-clay and other 
 parts of the drift, which, as will be afterwards pointed out, are much 
 better developed on the low grounds than among the hills. Both the 
 uplands and the plains have their igneous rocks. Those of the former 
 district occur mostly as narrow dykes which are seen chiefly in the water- 
 courses. At Priestlaw, however, the valleys of the Whiteadder and 
 Fassney Waters are occupied by a mass of granite about a mile square 
 
8 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 and at the south-east corner of the map the granite and felstone boss 
 of Cockburn Law, the felstone of Dirrington Law, and the greenstone 
 protrusions of Chapel Hill and Borthwick Hill, form conspicuous 
 eminences. In the north-western or agricultural half of the district 
 rocks of volcanic origin play an important part. They occupy there an 
 area of not less than fifty-five or sixty square miles, including the 
 Garlton Hills, and some offshoots from them to the south, together with 
 all the fertile slopes that stretch northwards to North Berwick. They 
 likewise occur further west, along the shore, as dykes and bosses, 
 traversing the carboniferous strata, as well as on the eastern shore at 
 Dunbar. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 LOWER SILURIAN. 
 
 THE oldest rocks shown on the present map belong to the Lower 
 Silurian formation. They form the chain of the Lammermuir Hills, 
 and thus are continuous with the great Lower Silurian uplands of the 
 South of Scotland. They consist of alternations of very hard granular 
 greywacke, or grit, with bands of dark grey, green, reddish, or blue 
 shale, and display throughout their whole extent a remarkable similarity 
 of lithological character. They contain no bands of limestone, conglo- 
 merate, interbedded volcanic rocks, nor any series of strata differing 
 markedly from the general aspect of the whole. Hence, in crossing the 
 Lammermuir chain, we meet with repetitions of greywacke and shale, 
 sometimes in thicker sometimes in thinner bands, but with no essential 
 distinctions by which an upward or downward succession might be 
 traced. These rocks have a prevailing strike from north-east to south- 
 west. They are usually inclined at high angles, or even vertical, so 
 that in walking across their upturned edges, as exposed along the 
 course of a stream, it might be supposed that we must necessarily pass 
 over a great thickness of rock. In truth, however, these strata have 
 been squeezed into innumerable sharp folds, the same beds being 
 brought up to the surface again and again. This structure is admirably 
 revealed along the range of sea cliff to the west of St. Abb's Head. 
 The massive strata of greywacke are there seen to be folded back upon 
 themselves into arches and troughs, the inclination of the whole being 
 very high. The force by which the strata were thus crumpled acted 
 from the north-west and south-east, hence the axis of the folds and 
 the strike of the rocks run from north-east to south-west. Since the 
 corrugation of the rocks was completed the district has suffered vastly 
 from denudation. The tops of the arches have been shorn off, and now 
 the abraded edges of the tilted strata come to the surface like the tops 
 of books which have been set on end. It is not until these coast cliffs are 
 seen that the casual observer learns that what seems to be an endless 
 succession of vertical strata, many miles in thickness, is really formed 
 out of a series of greywackes and shales, not many thousand feet thick, 
 but crumpled, like an old-fashioned frill, into hundreds of plaits and 
 puckerings.* 
 
 An attentive study of the dip of these rocks, as shown in the various 
 brooks of the Lammermuirs, enables the geologist to make out in part 
 the various foldings that are prolonged inland from the clear coast- 
 section. He can do this, however, only in small part, for over much of 
 the surface the rocks are concealed by drift or peat, and even where 
 they are exposed in the watercourses their mere edges often give little 
 or no clue to their structure underground. The accompanying section 
 (Fig. 1.) represents the structure of the Lammermuirs as made out in 
 
 * Sec Geology of Eastern Berwickshire (Mem. Geol, Survey), p. 6, et seq. 
 
LOWER SILURIAN. 
 
10 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 this way by a collection of all ilie evidence to be gathered from the 
 brooks and other exposures of rock, along a line drawn at a right angla 
 to the strike of the Silurian rocks, from near the village of Gifford to 
 Dirrington Law. It will, of course, be understood that there are 
 probably many more curves in nature than are shown in this drawing. 
 
 Beginning at the north-west end of the section we find ourselves at 
 the base of the Lammermuir chain among the pale sandstones and 
 dark shales of the Calciferous Sandstone group (d l } to be afterwards 
 described. These strata are seen in the watercourses in the neighbour- 
 hood of Gifford. From the upper Old Red Sandstone, (c 3 ) which at 
 Tester fills an old bay along the flanks of the Silurian hills, they are 
 probably separated by a line of fault, though the junction of the two 
 formations is hidden under masses of drift. 
 
 The Old Red sandstones and marls are well exposed in the course of 
 the Hopes Water between Tester and the foot of Dod Law. They dip 
 gently to the north-west away from the hills, their lower parts being 
 made up of a brecciated conglomerate which has been derived from the 
 waste of the Silurian rocks on which it rests. The hard shales and 
 greywacke of the Silurian series are at length inet with in nearly 
 vertical strata having at first a strike towards the north-west. The 
 line of section now runs into the hills between Hopes and Brookside. 
 In the Brookside Burn the rocks are seen to dip towards the north- 
 west at about 3o, while in the Mid Burn, a little further south, they 
 are inclined in the same direction, but at an angle of 75 or more. They 
 here contain an intrusive bed of porphyry which runs with their strike 
 from south-west to north-east across Fennie Law for more than a mile. 
 It is a compact felspathic rock, of a pink colour, and like most of the 
 intruded dykes and bosses of this region, is speckled with granules of 
 vitreous quartz. Immediately beyond this rock the greywacke and 
 shale are again found, either on end or plunging at right angles towards 
 the north-west, until, above the sources of the streams, they pass under 
 the covering of rough peat with which Harestone Hill and all the upper 
 part of the Lammermuir chain is coated. The arch of the strata under 
 Harestone Hill, given in the section, is inferred from the direction of a 
 curve in the Fassney Water, where the stream begins to bend towards 
 the east. Passing across this hill the line of section descends into the 
 gentle peaty hollow whence the Fassney Water takes its rise. Two 
 small streamlets, one called: Black Grain, the other Marlion Grain 
 which unite to form the Fassney, have each cut for themselves a deep 
 gully through the peat and superficial detritus into the rock below. At 
 the foot of the Marlion Grain the Silurian strata, consisting of dark 
 shales and greywacke, with a band of hard blue finely conglomeratic 
 grit, dip to N.N.W. at 70. They are traversed by small dykes and 
 veiniugs of different felspathic rocks, and in some places where these 
 intrusions are numerous the strata are much broken and hardened. A 
 thick group of shales, sometimes of a pale yellowish colour, with bands 
 of greywacke, may be traced up the Marlion Grain. In the Wolf 
 Cleuch, a little to the north-east, they have a purple and green tint, and 
 though at both localities their prevailing dip is towards the north-west, 
 they are much broken and altered and interrupted with felspathic 
 bosses. The streams here again bring us up into the peaty covering of 
 the hills. Meikle Says Law, the highest point on the Lammermuirs 
 (1750 feet above the sea), is a smooth flat summit, more like an undu- 
 lating piece of low moorland than the top of a hill range. From 
 this eminence the line of section runs slightly diagonally along the crest 
 of the Lammermuirs, striking into the valley of the Dye Water, a little 
 below Byrecleugh. By descending the course of that stream from its 
 
LOWER SILURIAN. 11 
 
 source on the west side of Meikle Says Law we obtain a tolerably con- 
 tinuous section of the rocks. 
 
 At the Rotten Cleuch, from which the Dye Water rises, the grey- 
 wacke and shale are either on end or inclined at a high angle towards 
 the north-west. A short way down the stream, however, they are 
 found to turn over and dip sharply to the south-east, thus giving rise 
 to an arch, the axis of which probably runs through Meikle Says Law. 
 The old north-westerly inclination is speedily resumed, and for six 
 hundred yards or more the strata consist chiefly of sandy shales, some- 
 times much jointed and twisted. Where the Herring Road, a faint 
 mountain, track, crosses the stream greenish greywacke and shale on 
 end are interrupted by a thin baud of pink felstone, to the south-east of 
 which a thick series of greenish shales occurs, weathering with a pink 
 or yellowish surface, somewhat like the felspathic intrusive bosses. 
 Some thick greywacke beds now appear ; they are in part finely con- 
 glomeratic, and one of their number, of a yellow colour and weathering 
 into spheroidal masses, can be traced from the south-east side of North Hart 
 Law across the Dye Water to near the crest of the Kilpallet Heights, a 
 distance of about three miles. A little furthar down the stream the 
 strata again arch over to the south-east, speedily returning, however, to 
 their normal north-westerly dip, which is well seen at Shiel, where the 
 angle is about 62. Three hundred yards further down the stream 
 another pink quartziferous felspathic porphyry comes up along the 
 strike of the shales. This is succeeded by a zone of greywacke and a 
 series of greywackes and shales, with a thin porphyry band, the whole 
 inclined at high angles to the north-west until at the foot of Red's 
 Cleuch a south-easterly dip is seen. A band of pebbly grit crosses 
 Red's Cleuch, and what seems to be the same bed cuts the Dye Water 
 to the north-east a little above another thin band of porphyry. Close to 
 this intrusive rock the shales are a good deal altered ; and in the channel 
 of the stream between Little and Meikle Law, only a few yards to the 
 north, a band of hard dark amygdaloidal greenstone occurs, to which 
 fuller reference will be afterwards made. The greywacke beds which 
 now cross the course of the Dye Water extend nearly as far as the foot 
 of Meikle Namels Cleuch till they are interrupted for a foot or two by 
 a thin seam of pinkish porphyry with green hornblende. But they 
 immediately reappear, and with occasional intercalations of shale, and 
 at least one protrusion of porphyry, they continue down the stream, 
 either vertical or with a north-westerly inclination, until on the south- 
 east side of Meikle Law the Dye takes a sharp bend northwards. A 
 small burn here comes down from the south, and if its channel is fol- 
 lowed up the hill a succession of anticlinal and synclinal axes is passed 
 over 1 , the strata being bands of greywacke with shaly partings, some- 
 times much jumbled and broken. The same series of folds is seen, but 
 less perfectly, in the Dye Water, for the beds are there much twisted 
 and disturbed at the Heron Scar. A bed of porphyry may be seen on 
 the east side of the Dye Water, where the stream bends northward ; it 
 dips with the greywacke and shale (E.S.E. at 52), and is a crystalline 
 rock, with white felspar crystals and clear quartz granules and with a 
 greenish tinge, probably from an admixture of hornblende. At the 
 junction of Kerson's Cleuch with the Dye Water the strata are on end 
 and traversed by a pink porphyry. Where the next runnel (Brook's 
 Cleuch) comes down from the north some altered beds of greywacke 
 and shale dip south-eastward at an angle of 60 below a band of hard 
 greywacke beds. In the ravine of the Foul Cleuch, which descends 
 from the north-western slopes of the Upper Knowe, a thick series of 
 shales is seen, at first in vertical beds but soon dipping towards the 
 
12 GEOLOGY OP EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 north-west. Thus the jointed greywacke comes up to the surface again, 
 and with a westerly dip occupies the course of the Dye Water as far 
 down as the Washing-pool of Byrecleuch, where it begins to get split 
 up with shaly partings and by one or two seams of porphyry, in which 
 the shales are as it were entangled. Between this point and Byre- 
 clench Cottage several folds of the strata may be noticed in the channel 
 of the stream, and the rocks show signs of great alteration, being some- 
 times turned into a kind of quartz rock or Lydian Stone. This is par- 
 ticularly to be noticed close to the ford due west of the Cottage, where 
 a thin band of porphyry crosses the stream. At Byrecleuch the dip of 
 the hard blue greywacke is towards the north-west at a high angle. The 
 same inclination is maintained by a series of greenish, blue, and red 
 shales by which the greywacke is underlaid, but their angle lessens to 
 between 50 and 70. From Byrecleuch to Horseupcleuch the Dye 
 Water passes over a series of thick zones of greywacke and shale, and 
 the same strata can be traced north-eastward along the course of the 
 Wester Burn. Their prevailing dip is north-westerly, and they are 
 occasionally traversed by a vein of porphyry and by two or three knobs 
 of greenstone. The subjoined section shows the position of the beds in 
 the Dye Water above Dye Cottage. 
 
 Fig. 2. Section of Silurian Strata in Dye Water. 
 
 9 
 The darker bands are shale, the dotted bands greywacke ; g, an intrusive greenstone. 
 
 The line of Section we have been following now slants over the ridge 
 on the south side of the Dye Water across Scar Law into the Watch 
 Water. The bands of greywacke and shale just referred to as lying 
 between Byrecleuch and Horseupcleuch run along the northern slope 
 of this ridge, and the strata seen in the Watch Water must be pro- 
 longed under the southern slope. The details given in the Section are 
 thus compiled from the exposure of the rocks in these two streams, for 
 on the heathy ridge itself no rock is to be seen. In the bed of the 
 Watch Water for fully two miles above the farmhouse of Scarlaw the 
 greywacke and shale may be followed in frequent and rapid foldings. 
 These contortions are generalized in the Section ; indeed, it would be 
 impossible to show them all, save on a drawing almost as large as the 
 area which it would represent. The subjoined figure gives some idea 
 of the nature of the disturbance in a space of 200 yards about three- 
 quarters of a mile above Twinlawford. There is a marked band of 
 
 Fig. 3. Section of contorted Silurian Strata on Watch Water. 
 
 reddish and greenish shales, like those of Byrecleuch and Dye Cottage. 
 Possibly the whole may be on the same horizon, and repeated by 
 foldings which are not seen, for there can be no doubt that there must 
 be many anticlinal and synlinal axes in the line of section of which, 
 from the covering of drift or peat, no trace can be found at the surface. 
 It is at least certain that between the Dye and the Watch, although the 
 strata are pitching at high angles, they do not in reality attain a great 
 thickness ; that, on the contrary, their thickness is comparatively 
 
LOWER SILURIAN. 13 
 
 small, though by a series of foldings it is made to cover the strip of 
 ground between the two streams. The remainder of the Section slants 
 along the ridges to the south of the Watch Water, passing over heathy 
 ground, where the rock is never seen, except in occasional openings in 
 which a bed of greywacke has been quarried on the hillside for building 
 dry-stane -dykes. A bend in the course of the Watch Water, by which 
 the steam runs parallel to the line of section between Scarlaw and 
 Rawburn, enables us to fill in the details in part. Beds of hard 
 greywacke and red and grey shale-partings alternate with thicker zones 
 of green and reddish shales and other massive bands of hard jointed 
 greywacke of the usual character. These beds are in places twisted 
 and broken, but their general inclination is towards the north-west at 
 angles which sometimes come as low as 57. The last part of the 
 section of the Silurian rocks, between Cross Burn and Dirrington Law, 
 is obscured under heath, peat, and drift. In the valley of the Kip- 
 pielaw Burn the Upper Old Red Sandstone makes its appearance, 
 and serves to separate the Silurian rocks from the felstone mass of 
 Dirrington Law. 
 
 In this transverse section of the Lammermnir chain it is evident that 
 the real thickness of the Silurian strata cannot but be much less than 
 their apparent thickness. It is only necessary to visit the coast cliffs 
 to be convinced that unless we saw a clear exposure of every yard of 
 the line of section we could not be sure that axial lines did not escape 
 us ; nay, even with such an exposure, absolute certainly on the subject 
 could not be attained. Hence it is vain to attempt anything like a 
 probable estimate of the thickness of the Silurian series of the Lammer- 
 muirs. If the convolutions of the St. Abb's Cliff were to be taken as a 
 fair sample of the general disturbance in the interior of the country, we 
 might guess that as a horizontal extent of 3J miles of vertical and 
 contorted strata on the coast was found to be possibly made up of no 
 more than 4,000 feet of rock, so in the section of similarly disturbed 
 strata in the Lammermuirs the vertical thickness might not be more 
 than a fourth or a fifth of the horizontal distance. Though no positive 
 decision seems at present warranted, it may be inferred in the mean- 
 time that the beds on the north-west flank of the Lammermuirs are as a 
 whole higher than those towards the south-east side, and hence that 
 in crossing from Gifford to Dirrington Law, although we may cross the 
 same strata again and again, as they are repeated at the surface by 
 fresh foldings, still on the whole we are advancing from younger into older 
 parts of the Lower Silurian series. 
 
 Fossils. For the extreme rarity of any indications of life among 
 the thick greywackes and shales of the Lammermuirs, it seems difficult 
 to account by any metamorphic change which may have destroyed the 
 organic remains, for there are numerous shales hardly more altered 
 than those of the carboniferous series, and in which, had any fossils 
 been entombed, they could scarcely fail to be preserved. On the other 
 hand, it is not easy to be believe that thousands of feet of sedimentary 
 rock should have been deposited with no more abundant relics of living 
 things than can now be discovered in them. All the fossils noted by 
 the Geological Survey in the Lammermuir chain are given in the 
 Appendix. The graptolites and annelide markings at Ellemford and 
 in the Dye Water occur in green or bluish-grey hard fissile shales. The 
 graptolites at the Headshaw Burn are very abundant in one thin 
 layer, which lies among smashed and contorted black shales, having the 
 same carbonaceous character so common among the Lower Silurian 
 graptolite-bearing shales of Peebleshire and Dumfries. 
 
14 
 
 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 INTRUSIVE ROCKS IN LOWER SILURIAN SERIES : METAMORPHISM. 
 
 IT will be observed that the Lammermuir Hills, as shown on the map, 
 are speckled over with little streaks and dots of dark red. These 
 markings are intended to represent the dykes or veins of intrusive rock 
 which have been met with in the course of the Geological Survey of 
 the district. They are almost wholly confined to the courses of the 
 streams ; not that they do not in nature occur in equal abundance over 
 the sides and tops of the hills, but because it is seldom that the rocks 
 can be examined except in the watercourses. If the covering of heath, 
 peat, and drift could be stripped off, it would, in all likelihood, be found 
 that the dykes and veins run up from the streams into the hills and 
 ridges above, and thus that the abundance of these rocks in the streams 
 is a sign of their abundance throughout the whole structure of these 
 hills. In describing the eastern part of the Lammermuirs in a former 
 Memoir,* I had occasion to point out the sporadic manner in which 
 these intrusive masses are clustered together. Here and there a soli- 
 tary vein may be seen ; at least no other is to be found near it in the 
 limited section of the rocks open to observation. But for the most part 
 they occur in groups, and sometimes in such abundance as to equal, or 
 nearly so, the mass of the grey wacke and shale in which B they lie. 
 Their general trend is from north-east to south-west, or parallel with 
 the strike of the district ; but though they thus conform to the general 
 strike, they are everywhere found cutting through the greywacke or 
 shale, showing that they are not of contemporaneous origin but have 
 been thrust into the Silurian rocks. The subjoined figure maybe 
 taken as a fair sample of the general relation of the two kinds of rock. 
 
 Fig. 4. Felstone Vein in contorted Silurian Strata, Banks of Dye 
 Water above Longformacus. 
 
 With one or two trifling exceptions to be immediately noticed, all the 
 veins and dykes consist of different varieties of a felspathic rock. 
 Sometimes it is a compact hornstone, sometimes a well-marked por- 
 phyry, and sometimes a dull meagre rock like some of the traps of 
 the Garlton Hills. Clear granules of quartz occur in most of the 
 veins ; crystals of hornblende, and brown and silvery mica (rarely 
 talc) are also common, so that when the rock is crystalline, both in 
 
 * Geology of Eastern Berwickshire, p. 28. 
 
LOWER SILURIAN IGNEOUS ROCKS. 15 
 
 mineralogical composition and in texture, it sometimes is linked closely 
 with the syenites. Though the strata next the veins are occasionally 
 a good deal hardened and jumbled, there is no striking metamorphism 
 as we approach a group of veins. But there is ground for inferring 
 that the veins themselves are the signs and results of a general process of 
 metamorphism which has gone on at some depth, and of which there 
 are in this district two large and well-defined examples at the surface. 
 Of these the one is Cockburn Law, and the other the felspathic mass 
 of Priestlaw. The former eminence having been already described 
 along with the rest of the metamorphic district of which it forms a 
 part,* it is unnecessary to do more than refer the reader to the memoir 
 cited below. 
 
 The triangular mass of crystalline rock lying in the hollow where the 
 Fassney and the Whiteadder join has long been well known to Scottish 
 mineralogists. It was visited by Playfair, Hall, Jamieson, Boue, 
 &c.f It covers, perhaps, in all about a square mile of ground, and is 
 completely surrounded by Silurian greywacke and shale. The best 
 section of its relations to these strata is that which has been cut by the 
 Fassney Water. In describing this section it will be most advantageous 
 to begin at some distance up the stream and mark the gradual changes 
 which lead on to the great unstratified mass of Priestlaw. For this 
 purpose we may take up the section where the road across Lammermuir 
 passes over the Fassney, and then descend towards Priestlaw. 
 
 Below the road we meet with bands of greywacke and thin shale- 
 partings standing on end, and striking nearly N.E. and S.W. These 
 strata are exceedingly fine grained and compact, ringing with a metallic 
 sound when struck. In the greywacke the granular structure, however, 
 may still be detected, and though the shales break with a con cboidal 
 fracture, and in places where haematitic almost pass into jasper, they 
 still show along a weathered edge their fissile structure. About a 
 quarter of a mile below the bend by which the Fassney quits the 
 roadside, a vein of pinkish crystalline felstone runs along the line 
 of strike of the beds, and may be seen merging on either side into 
 the same fine-grained flinty greywacke just noticed. In the centre this 
 vein or dyke is compact and crystalline, of a dark flesh-colour, with a 
 good deal of what seems to be serpentine diffused through its sub- 
 stance. The greenish hue arising from this latter ingredient grows less 
 marked away from the centre ; the texture of the rock also becomes 
 somewhat finer, until by degrees it passes into a dull greenish-grey, 
 granular, very hard and flinty greywacke, there being really no line 
 of demarcation between the two rocks. Further down the stream the 
 strata continue vertical, and a good deal jointed and broken, with the 
 same compact jaspery texture, some of them indeed being hardly recog- 
 nizable from intrusive felstones. Another vein or bed or dyke of 
 felspathic rock then occurs in a similar position with the last. It is a 
 compact crystalline mass of a pinkish colour, made up of a base of 
 pink crystalline felspar with scattered specks of black mica and horn- 
 blende. The bed next it on the north-west side is a soft crumbling 
 decomposing shale. Then comes an exceedingly hard greywacke con- 
 taining granules of dark vitreous quartz, and so altered in its general 
 aspect that it might readily pass in some places for a felstone. Its 
 
 * See Geology of Eastern Berwickshire, p. 29. 
 
 f See Playfair, Illustrations, p. 328 ; Jameson's Mineralogy of Dumfries, Appendix; 
 Boue, Essai Gc-ologique sur 1'Ecosse, p. 94; Ogilby, Mem. Wer. Soc. vol. i. 126; 
 Hay Cunningham, Geology of the Lothians, p. 101. 
 
16 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 bedded structure, however, is quite distinct. In certain parts it is of 
 a more earthy character, and weathers with a pale brick colour. Under 
 the plantation on the west side of Priestlaw a number of felspathic 
 masses of the same kind may be seen in the channel of the Fassney. 
 One of these, the first encountered in further descending the stream, 
 is a dull, pale, flesh-coloured rock containing a little hornblende ; it cuts 
 sharply through some dark shales which are there altered into a kind 
 of coarse j as; :T or Lydian Stone. 
 
 At the sharp turn of the stream to N.N.W. immediately below the 
 plantation an interesting but complicated series of sections begins. 
 A hard pink granular felstone is there found intersecting and involving 
 pieces of the red hardened shales. A few yards further down on the 
 west bank of the stream a dark red or chocolate-coloured vesicular 
 felstone is likewise seen, apparently traversing irregularly the shales. 
 The cavities of this rock occasionally contain calcedony. A change in 
 the strike now takes place, for the red shales are seen trending away to 
 N. 25 W., at nearly a right angle to their former course. They are 
 exceedingly altered here, and look as if they had been subjected to a 
 process of baking. One of their members, seen on the west side of 
 the stream, is a dull reddish-grey flinty rock, which if found by itself 
 would be unhesitatingly marked as a felstone, but here I could not 
 separate it by any line from the succeeding Silurian strata. A few feet 
 further on a similar rock creeps down the low bank on the same side of 
 the water, where it may be traced running between the altered grey- 
 wacke bands. It is a mixture of felspar with black mica and horn- 
 blende. The number of veins and " spurts " of this kind of rock is 
 much too great to admit of being traced, even on the large six-inch-scale 
 maps of the Geological Survey. Greywacke beds continue along the 
 west bank of the stream, having the same altered character as before, 
 with even a faintly crystalline texture, indistinct crystals of felspar, 
 and a few of black mica. 
 
 While these highly altered stratified rocks line the west side of the 
 Fassney, the east bank only two or three yards away begins to be 
 occupied by the great felspathic mass of Priestlaw. Where this rock 
 is first seen it exactly resembles some of the felspathic veins or beds 
 just described. It is compact crystalline of a dirty salmon-colour, with 
 a base of felspar and a set of cavities, filled with a red ferruginous 
 earth, which may be decomposed hornblende. It is sometimes streaked 
 with green, apparently from an admixture of serpentine. After 
 keeping parallel with the stream for a short distance, the edge of this 
 mass bends a little to the right away from the stream, allowing the 
 stratified rocks to make their appearance for a few yards on the east 
 side. Here again the proofs of intense metamorphism are fresh and 
 strong, for it is sometimes hard to say whether we should call the rock 
 beneath us greywacke or felstone. The strata are succeeded by a rock 
 which, -where nearest them, has much of the character of a greywacke, 
 but it soon passes into an undoubted felstone of the same hue, texture, 
 and composition as the salmon-coloured mass just described. This rock 
 then becomes greener in colour and more finely crystalline, until once 
 more it resembles greywacke. It is here composed of felspar, quartz, 
 and hornblende, with mica. To this compound immediately succeeds, 
 by a rapid increase in the size of the crystals, the true granite of 
 Priestlaw here a granular mixture of pinkish felspar, grey quartz, 
 and black mica, with perhaps a little disseminated hornblende. Along 
 the bank of the stream it weathers like a greenstone into a greenish 
 sand, with firm undecomposed balls sticking in it. 
 
 The Priestlaw mass varies considerably in texture and composition 
 
LOWER SILURIAN IGNEOUS ROCKS. 17 
 
 throughout its extent. Most of it is a well-marked granite,* some- 
 times coarser and sometimes finer in grain, and sometimes, where the 
 hornblende increases, partaking of the character of a syenite. It 
 encloses or is traversed by masses of felstone like those of the veins in 
 the Fassney. It tends to rapid decomposition, crumbling away into a 
 yellow silvery sand from which hard unweathered balls may be picked 
 out in abundance. Except in the section just described in the Fassney 
 the junction of the granite with the stratified rocks is not well 
 shown, f 
 
 Veins of barytes containing copper ("green carbonate and prismatic 
 copper-glance," according to Cunningham) have been worked to a 
 small extent in the Priestlaw granite. Ores of the same metal have been 
 found in small quantity in other parts of the Lammermuirs in lodes 
 that run with the strike of the strata. Those noted in carrying on 
 the Geological Survey are marked on the map by gilt lines, but there 
 does not seem much hope of any large and profitable working. 
 
 Besides the felstone veins the Silurian rocks contain a liiiiited num- 
 ber of protrusions of greenstone. These may possibly be in some cases 
 of the same general date as the felspathic masses, while others seem to 
 belong to a much later period. The largest greenstone mass is the 
 dyke, at the south-east corner of the map, running from Oatleycleuch 
 into Stoneshiel Hill. It is more than a mile and a half long, and cuts 
 across both the Silurian strata and the granite of Cockburn being thus 
 later than the felstone veins. This dyke should probably be ranked with 
 the other late N.W. and S.E. or W. and E. dykes which are found over 
 the whole country 4 Two or three small bosses of reddish crystalline 
 greenstone occur in the course of the Dye Water between Dye Cottage and 
 Byrecleuch. At the foot of the Burn betwixt the Laws, about two miles 
 above Byrecleuch, another small greenstone dyke occurs. Where unde- 
 composed in the centre it is a black compact rock with crystals of black 
 mica and kernels of carbonate of lime. Towards the edge it becomes pale 
 on the surface, nodular or spheroidal, still compact, but shading by degrees 
 into a soft yellowish green earthy substance, which appears to merge 
 into the contiguous shales. The actual line of junction looks like a 
 passage, or at least the one rock passes by various steps of decomposition 
 into the ordinary character of the other. Another narrow dyke of 
 greenstone occurs at the head of Lauderdale, on the south side of Soutra 
 Hill, where it has been exposed along with the Silurian strata, among 
 which it lies in a cutting on the high road. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 UPPER OLD RED SANDSTONE. 
 
 Its Area. The next formation in the order of chronological succession 
 is the Upper Old Red Sandstone, which occupies an important place in 
 the geology of East Lothian, where it was mapped by Professor Ramsay. 
 
 * Meaning by granite a crystalline compound of felspar, quartz, and mica, with 
 occasional hornblende. How Playfair and his followers should have been called in 
 question for giving to such a rock the name of granite it is not easy to see, unless the 
 word was used by the objectors with certain geological restrictions, and not merely as 
 a mineralogical term. 
 
 f The general inferences which I would draw from the granite and the felspathic 
 veins of this region have already been given in the Memoir on Eastern Berwickshire. 
 
 t See Trans. Hoy. Soc. Edin., vol. xxii. 
 
 B 
 
18 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 Mr. Howell, and myself. It forms a fringe round nearly the whole 
 of the Lammermuir chain, from Siccar Point (sheet 34) to Fala, on the 
 north-west side, and from New Channelkirk, at the head of Lauderdale, 
 to near Berwick, on the south-east. A glance at the map will show that 
 this fringe is not quite complete. There is a space of two or three 
 miles on the north-west flank of the hills between Gifford and Fala, 
 where the carboniferous rocks impinge on the Silurian of the chain. 
 Near Fala, too, the outlier of Old Red Sandstone, which lies on the 
 watershed, creeps down to within a short distance from the fringe on 
 the north side, and is only about a couple of miles from the red sand- 
 stones of Lauderdale on the south. These breaks are probably due 
 partly to faults and partly to denudation. That the Upper Old Red 
 Sandstone once completely girdled the Lammermuirs can hardly be 
 doubted ; nay, as will be shown on a subsequent page, there appears 
 good evidence to show that these hills were once largely overspread by 
 the same red conglomerates and sandstones which now skirt their 
 margin. The outlier on Soutra Hill lies on the crest of the ridge, and 
 in all likelihood is only a fragment of a more extensive deposit. But 
 perhaps the most singular feature in the distribution of the Upper Old 
 Red Sandstone in this region is its prolongation across the hills from 
 side to side in a broad belt reaching from the northern slopes above 
 Dunbar to the southern margin of the hills at Dirrington Law.* By 
 this means the Lammermuir tableland is divided as it were into two 
 islands ; that to the east is chiefly contained in Sheet 34 of the Geolo- 
 gical Survey, while the western forms what are properly known as the 
 Lammermuir Hills, though that name is also applied to the whole chain 
 of heights from Soutra to the sea. It is deserving of notice, in connexion 
 with the former extension of the Upper Old Red Sandstone over this 
 part of Scotland, that some of the conglomerate hills along the line of the 
 transverse belt are greatly higher than the surrounding parts of the chain. 
 The Peat Law, near Bothwell, for example, reaches a height of 1,209 
 feet, while the long ridge called Monynut Edge ranges up to 1,300 and 
 even 1,345 feet. None of the Silurian hills of the east island, that is of 
 course between the conglomerate belt and the sea at St. Abb's Head, are 
 nearly so high. Their most elevated point is the Laughing Law above 
 Godscroft (1,008 feet), whence they slope down to the sea. To the west 
 of the belt runs the parallel Silurian ridge of Spartleton Edge, ranging 
 from 1,200 to 1,534 feet, and thus overlooking the conglomerate hills. 
 
 Absence of a true Base. The Upper Old Red Sandstone of Had^ing- 
 tonshire agrees with that of the rest of Scotland (at least with what has 
 been examined in detail by the Geological Survey in the southern half of 
 the country) in being destitute of a true base line. It is never found to 
 shade into any older formation all its junctions with them are uncon- 
 formities. Its bottom therefore at any one place has been determined 
 by local causes, and cannot be regarded as marking the real beginning 
 in time of the geological period which we know as that of the Upper 
 Old Red Sandstone. Its highest beds, on the contrary, merge insensibly 
 into those at the bottom of the carboniferous system, and thus give to 
 the latter a true base. With a vaguely defined upper limit, and no 
 ascertained bottom save such as has arisen from local accident, the 
 
 * This remarkable point in the structure of the Lammermuirs was worked out 
 during the Geological Survey of that district. I was not aware at that time that it 
 had been previously ascertained by my friend Mr. Stevenson, of Dunse. His paper on 
 this subject was published in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. vi. 
 p. 418. Mr. Stevenson had likewise noticed the outlier of conglomerate on Soutra 
 Hill before it was visited by myself, although he had not published any account of it, 
 
UPPER OLD RED SANDSTONE. 19 
 
 dimensions and development of this formation vary greatly in different 
 districts. It sometimes attains a thickness of several thousand feet, 
 and at a short distance dwindles down to a few hundreds, or disappears 
 altogether. Such changes are well seen in East Lothian and Berwick- 
 shire. They indicate features in the ancient physical geography of the 
 district to which I shall make reference at the close of this chapter. 
 
 The junction of the Upper Old Ked Sandstone and Conglomerate 
 with the Lower Silurian greywackes and shales is seen at many points 
 along the boundary line of the two formations. It is everywhere marked 
 by a violent unconformity. The Silurian strata are often on end, while 
 the pebbly sandstones and conglomerates repose at a gentle angle on 
 their upturned edges. It is evident, therefore, that the Silurian rocks 
 of the Lammermuir chain, and hence, in all probability, those of the 
 whole of the south of Scotland, were about as much convoluted and 
 broken previous to the deposition of the Upper Old Red Sandstone as 
 they are now ; and not only so, but they must even then have been 
 traversed by the same felspathic ciykes, and invaded by the same por- 
 phyritic and granitic masses, for fragments of all these rocks occur 
 abundantly in the conglomerate. Moreover, the distribution of the 
 latter deposits round the base of the hills shows that the Lammermuirs 
 must have existed at that ancient period, as a range of high ground 
 nearly, if not wholly, surrounded by water and worn into creeks and 
 bays, such as those of Tester and Fala, or into long narrow straits like 
 that between Cranshaws and Godscroft, in which is still lying the old 
 shingle now hardened into conglomerate. 
 
 It was in this part of Scotland that the earliest observations were 
 made on the true character of some of the ancient revolutions of the 
 crust of the earth. The highly-tilted Silurian strata and the gently- 
 inclined sandstones which rest on their edges, furnishing as they do 
 proofs of great terrestrial change, caught the eye of Hutton, and in his 
 hands, as well as those of his associates, Playfair and Hall, they were 
 made the means of establishing some of the fundamental principles of 
 geology. The district which thus became classic ground to the students 
 of this science lies chiefly along the shore from the mouth of Dunglass 
 Burn to St. Abb's Head.* This bold coast, rising in a long line of cliff 
 from the sea margin, forms one vast natural section, not more instructive 
 in its geological aspects than impressive from its wild and lonely 
 grandeur. Hutton and his biographer, Playfair, visited it in company 
 with Hall, and they have both left a record of the excursion. After 
 examining part of the rocks on shore, they proceeded along the base of 
 the cliff by boat to search for the junction of the red sandstone and 
 inclined Silurian beds, or " schistus." " At Siccar Point," says 
 Hutton, <{ we found a beautiful picture of this junction washed bare by 
 " the sea. The sandstone strata are partly washed away, and partly 
 " remaining upon the ends of the vertical schistus ; and in many places 
 " points of the schistus strata are seen standing up through among the 
 " sandstone, the greatest part of which is worn away. Behind this 
 " again we have a natural section of those sandstone strata containing 
 " fragments of the schistus. "f 
 
 The relation of the red sandstones and conglomerates to the older 
 formations is well seen along the margin of the hills from Siccar Point 
 
 * This coast line is embraced in Map 34 of the Geological Survey, but as its 
 geology bears reference chiefly to the present sheet, its description was not included 
 in the Memoir of Eastern Berwickshire (Map 34), but postponed to the present 
 chapter. 
 
 t Theory of the Earth, vol. i. p. 458 ; see also Playfair, Illustrations, 190; 
 Works, vol. iv. 78 ; Hall, Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. vii. 84, 162. 
 
 B2 
 
20 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 round by Heriot Water, Monynut, and Ellem Inn to Prestonhaugh, on 
 the south side of Cockburn Law. It is shown in the Dye Water below 
 Longformacus, and at intervals in the different brooks northward to 
 near Stenton. Sometimes the observer may detect an islet of Silurian 
 rock, standing up through the conglomerate just as a modern sea- 
 stack may be seen rising out of the shingle that gathers round its base. 
 This is well illustrated by the Knock Hill, about two miles south of 
 Cockburn Law, at the south-east corner of the map. It is also seen in 
 the next burn to the westward above Burnhouse, and in the Howbog 
 Burn near Cranshaws. Admirable junctions of conglomerate and 
 Silurian strata are seen along the north-west flanks of the hills. The 
 Danskin Burn is especially worthy of notice, for there the stream has 
 cut its way through the overlying red deposits for a considerable 
 distance, leaving them exposed along the upper part of the banks, while 
 the upturned Silurian strata form the channel of the stream. The bed 
 of the Dean Burn near Fala likewise exhibits instructive sections where 
 some islets of Silurian rocks are completely surrounded by the red 
 sandstones.* 
 
 Its Subdivisions in East Lothian and Berwickhire. There is no one 
 continuous section from top to bottom of the Upper Old Red Sand- 
 stone in this district. Hence, only by piecing the strata visible at one 
 locality to those seen in another do we obtain a general table of the 
 whole series of deposits. Viewed in the broad way, we may regard 
 this formation as composed here of two great subdivisions : 
 
 2. Upper Red Sandstones and Marls with occasional pebbly beds. 
 1. Lower Conglomerates. 
 
 1. Lower or Great Conglomerates. 
 
 The thick conglomerates, as is natural, lie at the base of the 
 formation. 'They have been derived from the waste of the Silurian 
 hills, and contain fragments of all the rocks of which these hills 
 are composed, with the exception of the greenstone dykes. For the 
 most part they are made up of fragments of the hard Silurian 
 grits and greywackes, with pieces of different porphyritic felstones, 
 granite, syenite, jasper, quartz, &c. Near the granitic mass of Cock- 
 burn Law the conglomerate abounds in pieces of granite. The 
 pebbles vary in size up to blocks sometimes two feet in diameter, and 
 it is worthy of notice that throughout a large part of the district, as in 
 the hills to the south of Dunbar, they are not thoroughly rounded like 
 ordinary beach shingle, but are more or less subangular, with an inter- 
 mixture of rounded and to some extent of angular fragments.f They are 
 imbedded in a somewhat scanty red ferruginous gritty paste. The 
 tenacity with which the pebbles adhere to each other varies consi- 
 
 * The section in the course of the Whiteadder near Prestonhaugh is especially 
 worthy of a visit. See Geol. Eastern Berwickshire, p. 35. It may be mentioned here that 
 the Upper Old lied Sandstones and Conglomerates of the Lammermuirs rest uncon- 
 formably on certain felspathic strata, which, from their fossils, are believed to represent 
 a part of the Lower Old Red Sandstone series. These strata are seen between Reston 
 and the sea, and are described in the Memoir just cited, p. 20. 
 
 f This subangular or brecciated character of the stones in the thick conglomerate 
 and the marly base in which they are embedded, at once struck me when I began to 
 examine the district, and I called attention to the fact as bearing on the probability 
 of glacial action in this part of the world during the accumulation of the Upper Old 
 Red Sandstone. See paper on Permian Breccias, Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. vol. 11, 
 p. 185. In 1865 I announced in the Header the discovery of ice-scratched stones in 
 Old Red Conglomerate of the same character and age near Kirkby Lonsdale and 
 Sedbergh. A. C. Rftnsay. 
 
UPPER OLD RED SANDSTONE. 21 
 
 derably, and in this way it gives rise to some picturesque forms of 
 scarp and ravine. Sometimes, where some infiltration has bound a 
 mass of the conglomerate more firmly together than the surrounding 
 portions, a fantastic peak or pillar has been left alone. On other 
 occasions the same effect, on even a more remarkable scale, is produced 
 by a dyke of greenstone, which, with its sides cased in a rough coating 
 of conglomerate, stands up as a giant column, or runs along the face of 
 a cliff as a perpendicular wall. These features are well seen in the 
 ravines of the Hardens Hills to the west of Dunse, and in those to the 
 south-west and west of Oldhamstocks. Save in these watercourses, 
 however, the area occupied by the conglomerate is as smooth and tame 
 in outline as that of the Silurian hills. 
 
 The conglomerate masses commence a little to the south of Brox- 
 burn, near Dunbar, where they are seen in the watercourse and in the 
 railway cutting. They then swell out into a group of rounded hills, 
 with deep intervening ravines, and extend as a belt completely across 
 the Lammermuir chain until they terminate in the Hardens Hills, 
 which a little to the west of Dunse overlook the lower plain or Merse 
 of Berwickshire. Thus the fringe of Old Red Sandstone which skirts 
 the north-western base of the table-land is connected with that on the 
 south-eastern flank by this transverse strip. It can hardly be doubted 
 that the conglomerate here fills up a narrow strait or channel that once 
 united the water on the one side of the hills with that on the other. Yet, 
 from the fact that the upper surface of the conglomerate rises to a 
 greater height (1,345 feet) than any of the Silurian hills in its imme- 
 diate neighbourhood, particularly on the east side, it must at one time 
 have extended far beyond the narrow strip to which it is here reduced, 
 unless indeed we suppose that the Silurian hills have been worn down- 
 more Rapidly than those of the conglomerate. Between the transverse 
 conglomerate belt and the sea the ground is all considerably below the 
 highest levels of the conglomerate. In all likelihood, therefore, the 
 latter deposit once stretched over much if not the whole of the 
 hilly district between the sources of the Whiteadder and St. Abb's 
 Head. Traces of this former extension seem still left in the outliers 
 of conglomerate at St. Abb's Head, Eyemouth, and Burrimouth, and 
 some other places in Eastern Berwickshire.* 
 
 The inclination of the conglomerate is not always easily discovered, 
 for as intercalations of sandstone are of infrequent occurrence it is 
 usually only by the disposition of the stones that the bedding of the 
 mass can be distinguished ; and even this test can only be applied 
 where a number of oblong or flat stones occur among the more irre- 
 gular or rounded ones. By attending to such indications we learn that 
 the dip of the huge conglomerate masses is very gentle, ranging usually 
 from 5 to 8, sometimes to 12, and that it rises towards the Silurian 
 hills, from whose waste these masses have been derived. The absence 
 of well-defined stratification renders the task of ascertaining the thick- 
 ness of the conglomerate extremely unsatisfactory. We are often 
 uncertain whether the direction of dip so marked at one point still 
 continues or flattens out, or is even replaced, as we see that it some- 
 times is, by an inclination in an opposite direction. If, however, we 
 assume that, from say the side of Bransly Hill across the conglomerate 
 belt to Innerwick, a distance of four miles, the dip continues north- 
 easterly at an angle of no more than 5 (and this is certainly a very 
 moderate assumption), we shall find that the total thickness of the 
 conglomerate reaches the sum of 1,760 feet. After our united survey 
 
 * See Memoir of Sheet 34, p. 38, et seq. ' 
 
22 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 of these hills, it was the conviction of my colleague, Mr. Howell, and 
 myself that the total depth of conglomerate at the thickest part could 
 not well be less than 2,000 feet. 
 
 But it is one of the features of the Old Red Sandstone of this dis- 
 trict that its conglomerates, after rapidly attaining a great develop- 
 ment, vanish again with equal speed. It must not be imagined that 
 the Silurian grounds of the Lammermuirs are everywhere fringed with 
 a belt of conglomerate 2,000 feet thick, or even approaching to such 
 dimensions. So far from this being the case, there are many localities 
 where the conglomerate does not appear at all, but is replaced by 
 sandstone, with perhaps a few pebble beds scattered through it. The 
 conglomerate towards Dunbar is bounded by two converging faults, so 
 that its relations to the later rocks cannot here be studied. Rising over 
 Doon Hill, and sweeping towards the south, it attains its maximum 
 between Innerwick or Oldhamstocks and the valley of the Monynut 
 Water. But here, too, its upper or eastern edge, where we might 
 expect to ascertain in what manner the later rocks rest upon it, is 
 formed by another line of dislocation which has depressed the Lower 
 Carboniferous rocks into a vertical or highly inclined position against 
 the flank of the conglomerate. This fault, however, does not appers 
 to reach the Heriot Water, for there, at about a right angle to its 
 course, we reach the Silurian rocks with the conglomerate resting on 
 them and striking with them for the coast. It is natural to expect 
 that the thick masses of conglomerate so prodigiously developed round 
 Oldhamstocks should continue across the four short miles that separate 
 them from the sea, and that as the Silurian hills bend seaward and 
 carry with them the deposits that flank their base, the conglomerate 
 should come out in heavy masses along the shore. Especially might 
 we look for a coast section when we know that the sea has laid bare 
 a succession of strata from the upturned edges of the greywacke 
 up into the Carboniferous Limestone. 
 
 When, however, we quit the hills above Oldhamstocks and walk 
 eastward towards Cockburnspath, we are at once struck with the 
 diminution of the conglomerate. The belt of Old Red Sandstone 
 measured along a line due west from the carboniferous beds at Old- 
 hamstocks to the base of the conglomerate, where it rests on the 
 Silurian rocks of Bransly Hill, is rather more than three and a half 
 miles. But from Oldhamstocks south to the Heriot Water, across the 
 spur which the Old Red Sandstone sends eastward to the sea, the 
 distance is little more than one mile. In each case, starting from the 
 same locality, we measure a section completely across the Old Red 
 Sandstone of the district at a right angle to the strike of the deposit 
 from the Carboniferous series to the broken edges of the Silurian 
 rocks ; but while one of these traverses shows a thickness of 1,500, or 
 2,000 feet of conglomerate, the other expc-os a depth of rock perhaps 
 nearly as great, but made up of sandstone and marl, with only now 
 and then a thin pebbly layer. Tracing this sandstone series seawards 
 we find that the disappearance of the conglomerate is both sudden and 
 complete. Instead of turning eastward to the sea the thick mass of 
 conglomerate holds straight south through the narrow channel already 
 described between Cranshaws and Godscroft, and opens into the 
 high grounds of the Hardens Hills, between Dirrington Law and Dunse, 
 whence it overlooks the wide plains of the Merse of Berwickshire. 
 It there expands to a great breadth and attains a considerable thick- 
 ness ; but when it advances to the base of the Dirrington Hills it begins 
 to get finer in texture and more sandy, passing up at length into a fine 
 felspathic sandstone, in which fragments of white or pink felstone, 
 
UPPER OLD RED SANDSTONE. 23 
 
 like that of Dirrington Law, are abundant. It will be seen that on 
 the cast side of the hills which rise to the south of Ellem Inn a 
 fault runs from near the Whiteadder south-eastward to the green- 
 stone mass of Borthwick Hill. On the west side of this fault the rock 
 is wholly conglomerate ; on the east side it is chiefly red sandstone, 
 with layers of red shale or marl. At two points along the south-west 
 side of the line of fault a little knob of Lower Silurian strata may be 
 seen rising from under the conglomerate, and flanked on the north-east 
 side by the sandstones and marls. One of these protuberances, called 
 the Knock Hill, lies immediately to the west of Castle Mains ; it is 
 made up of greywacke and shale, in some parts very much broken and 
 metamorphosed. The other is seen in the bed of the Mill Burn between 
 Kidshielhaugh and Burnhouse. It covers a space of only a few yards 
 where, from under the conglomerate, some beds of purple greywacke, 
 with pebbly bands, are seen dipping towards W.N.W., at an 'angle of 
 50. These two exposures of greywacke and shale represent, perhaps, 
 the remnant of what was the margin of the Silurian region during the 
 deposition of the conglomerate. The effect of the fault would thus be 
 to depress the Silurian district on the north-east side, so as to let in, 
 in a wedge-shape, the sandstones and marls that were formed at a later 
 time against a higher and of course newer margin, which still remains. 
 On this explanation we can understand why the conglomerate should 
 end off so suddenly along a given line, for that would be approximately 
 the edge of the old Silurian land ; and why the lenticular strip of 
 sandstone and marl should come in sharply between the borders of the 
 conglomerate and the flank of the Silurian hills. 
 
 Circling round the southern margin of the Lammermuir Hills the 
 conglomerate ascends the valley of the Leader as far as New Channel 
 Kirk, near which, as will be immediately pointed out, it presents some 
 interesting relations to the overlying sandstone series. Continuing up 
 this valley we find the conglomerate reappear in the Headshaw Burn 
 at Carfrae Common, whence it spreads out on either hand as an out- 
 lying cake which has here been laid down on the broad flat crest of the 
 Larnmermuir chain. This outlier, although not united with the conglo- 
 merate of Lauderdale on the one side, nor with that of Fala on the other, 
 is manifestly a mere fragment, and descends into the heads of the 
 valleys in such a way as to show that here the Old Red Sandstone once 
 stretched completely across the Lammermuir chain. This outlier, 
 however, is the only remnant of that ancient conglomerate covering 
 still left upon the top of the ridge. 
 
 On the north side of the Lammermuirs, as shown on the map, the Old 
 Red Sandstone occurs in bays that indent the borders of the Silurian 
 region. The conglomerate, however, is almost wholly wanting on that 
 side, its place being taken by the red sandstones and marls. It is only 
 towards the bottom, where the latter strata approach the greywacke 
 rocks, on which they rest, that we meet with a zone of conglomerate, 
 which is well seen in the Hope's Water, and in the stream at Danskin. 
 The mouth of each of the Old Red Sandstone bays is flanked by one 
 long fault, which running along the flank of the hills brings down the 
 Carboniferous and Old Red Sandstones against the older rocks of the 
 high grounds, so that it is only along -the inner margin of the two bays 
 that the actual unconformable junction of the Old Red on the Silurian 
 strata is visible. 
 
 2. Red Sandstones and Marls. 
 
 The lower conglomerate zone is overlaid by a series of red sandstones 
 and marls. These stretch from the sea at Dunbar, between two 
 parallel faults, along the base of the Lammermuir chain nearly as far 
 
24 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 as the village of Gilford. They likewise fill up the two bays just 
 mentioned to the south of Giftord, and to the east of Fala. On the 
 east side of the hills they are found as a baud running between the 
 Carboniferous strata and the Lower Silurian greywacke from Oldham- 
 stocks to the sea, where they are laid bare in a fine coast section. 
 Southwards, again, we meet with them skirting the southern side of the 
 Lammermuirs from near the Whiteadder, at Ellem Inn, eastwards, by 
 Prestonhaugh, into the plains of Eastern Berwickshire,* while from 
 Dirrington Law they likewise descend into the same broad valley. 
 
 Along the north-western flank of the hills from the Dunbar shore to 
 the village of Stenton the sandstones and marls, with the prevailing 
 hue of deep red, are varied with thin bands of conglomerate or 
 breccia, sometimes markedly calcareous. Sometimes the sandstones 
 are speckled red and white, or become lighter in colour and even wholly 
 white. They are usually thin- bedded, and the courses of marl being 
 likewise thin, the stratification of any mass of the strata is conspicuously 
 shown. The only section of the whole series of these red strata from 
 the worn surface of the Silurian rocks up to the base of the Carboni- 
 ferous beds, is that which has been laid bare by the waves between 
 Redheugh and the shore to the east of Cockburnspath. With the ex- 
 ception of a little brecciated conglomerate which comes out at the base 
 of the high bank to the east of the Redheugh Coastguard Watchhouse, 
 the strata consist of alternations of red and white sandstone with red 
 marl bands, and the usual pale green or white spots and streaks of dis- 
 coloration. The dip of these strata is towards the north, along from 
 the Silurian rocks on which they rest, and the angle of inclination 
 ranges from 8 or 10 to 35 or 40. A number of faults occur on the 
 beach, and though they are probably very trifling in their amount of 
 throw they are yet sufficient to prevent a strictly accurate calculation 
 of the total thickness of the strata. Measured from their junction with 
 the Silurian greywacke in the Pease Burn, northwards to near the 
 Horse Road Rock where they shade up into the Carboniferous series, 
 the Old Red sandstones and marls have a horizontal breadth of 42,000 
 feet. If we take the average clip to be 25, which is perhaps very 
 near the truth, we obtain a thickness of 1,700 feet.f And this is 
 probably a fair estimate. In looking at the arrangement of the strata 
 between Redheugh and the Horse Road Rocks we are struck with the 
 evidence which they present of having been deposited on a very uneven 
 floor of the Silurian rocks. This is admirably shown by the classic sections 
 at the Siccar Point, and likewise, though in a less obtrusive manner, 
 to the east of Redheugh. In the ravine below Cockburnspath Tower 
 also we find a knob of the underlying rock from which the red sand- 
 stones have been removed. In approaching the Horse Road Rocks the 
 peculiar dark brick-red hue of the sandstones gives way to a purplish 
 tint ; greenish and white sandstones, and marls or fireclays become 
 common, and among these strata lies the passage from the Upper Old 
 Red Sandstone into the overlying Carboniferous series. The rest of 
 this coast section will be described in the next chapter. 
 
 No fossils have been detected by the Geological Survey in any part 
 of the Old Red Sandstone shown on the present map. Scales of various 
 ganoid fishes have been found, however, eastward at Siccar Point, and 
 southward near Cockburn Law.J As these organic remains are refer- 
 able to the Upper Old Red Sandstone, and as the sandstones and con- 
 
 * Sec Memoirs of Geological Survey, Geology of Eastern Berwickshire, chap. v. 
 f At p. 35 of the Geology of Eastern Berwickshire the word "trifling" has been 
 inadvertently applied to this band of red sandstone. 
 
 J See the Memoir on the Geology of Eastern Berwickshire, Appendix, p. 57. 
 
UPPER OLD RED SANDSTONE. 25 
 
 glomerates of the present map are a prolongation of the strata in which 
 the remains have been found, the whole of the red sandstones and con- 
 glomerates of the Lanimennuirs are assigned to the Upper Old Red 
 Sandstone. 
 
 Physical Conditions under which the Upper Old Red Sandstone of 
 Lammermuir was deposited. There is no fossil evidence to show 
 whether these strata were deposited in fresh -water or the sea. Nor 
 does the structure or composition of the rocks themselves throw much 
 light on this obscure question. The conglomerate has not the rounded 
 well-worn character of marine shingle. It is likewise difficult, from 
 the present relations of the conglomerate to the underlying Silurian 
 greywacke, to understand how these immense accumulations of coarse 
 detritus could have been spread over such large areas in a lake bottom 
 without suffering greater attrition. The truth may be, as was first 
 suggested by Professor Ramsay, that ice had something to do with the 
 heaping up of these huge shingle-banks, and that the conglomerates 
 of Lammermuir represent to us a very ancient form of glacial drift, or 
 boulder-clay. 
 
 From the great thickness of the deposit, and from its occurrence 
 both at the base and at the top of the hills, it appears just to conclude 
 that the Upper Old Red Sandstone of this district was formed during 
 a slow submergence of the land. Zone after zone of the hills was 
 brought down beneath the level of the water and there buried under 
 piles of its own ruins. But in the relations of the overlying sandstones 
 and marls to the conglomerates below there are certain features which 
 may possibly indicate that this downward movement was not uniform, 
 or that it was interrupted by occasional upheavals. In our ignorance 
 regarding the conditions under which these strata were deposited it 
 would be vain at present to do more than chronicle the facts on which 
 future theories must be based. Reference has been made to the sudden 
 replacement of the massive conglomerates by fine grained red sand- 
 stones and marls. Thus the thick and broad band of conglomerate 
 which crosses the Lammermuir chain is flanked with the red sandstone 
 belt that runs from Oldhamstocks to the sea, and though along part 
 or the whole of the line of junction the two 'series are separated by a 
 fault, the effect of the dislocation must be trifling where the fault is ra- 
 pidly dying away to the south. Putting the fault out of sight we should 
 still find a shelving bank of conglomerate with red sandstones and 
 marls creeping along its base. But an example may be seen of the 
 same relation of the two groups of strata without the intervention of a 
 fault. At the head of Lauderdale about a half a mile below the farm 
 of Headshaw the east side of the valley is formed by a high bank of 
 coarse red conglomerate. Against the foot of this bank lies a series of 
 flat or gently inclined red sandstones, marls, and thin pebbly layers, as 
 shown in the subjoined woodcut. There is thus an unconformity between 
 the two series. To what cause this relation is to be traced it would be 
 
 Fig. 5. Sketch-section south of Annfield Public- House, Lauder- 
 dale, showing unconformity in the Old Red Sandstone. 
 
 a. Lower Silurian greywacke and shale. c. Red sandstones, marls, and pebbly - 
 6. Coarse Conglomerate. bands. 
 
26 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHTAN. 
 
 premature to decide. For while there may be proof here of unequal 
 movements of upheaval or depression, the unconformity may on the other 
 hand be due to original irregularities of deposition, the conglomerate 
 having gathered into a high shingle bank, along the base of which the 
 later sandstones and marls were successively deposited. This section 
 may be compared with those where a bank of boulder- clay is flanked 
 with the later sandy deposits of the drift. 
 
 A few glimpses still remain of what was the form of the land from 
 the detritus of which the conglomerates and sandstones were derived. 
 The belt of conglomerate between Dunbar and Longformacus fills up a 
 valley which must have been in existence during the Old Red Sandstone 
 period. The chain of the Lammermuirs seems to have risen then as 
 now as a line of hills with a steep north-western front carved out here 
 and there into bays, such as those of Clifford and Fala. The valley of 
 Lauderdale in like manner must have opened, as it still does, upon the 
 wide low ground to the south. The agencies of atmospheric waste 
 which cut out the valley of Lauderdale during or previous to the time 
 of the Upper Old Red Sandstone have returned to their work on the 
 same spot, and have re-opened the dale through the conglomerates and 
 sandstones which had in great measure if not wholly buried it. But 
 the old valley between Dunbar and Longformacus has not been exca- 
 vated anew. It is still choked up with conglomerate which rises into 
 a line of rolling hills. 
 
 From the present position of the Old Red Sandstone it is evident 
 that this deposit must once have stretched over a large part if not the 
 whole of the chain of the Lammermuirs. The downward movement 
 during which these strata were formed seems to have carried the hills 
 completely beneath the water to allow of their being covered over with 
 conglomerate and sandstone.* Whether the carboniferous rocks were 
 likewise deposited over the area of the Lammermuirs is not so certain. 
 If they ever did so all trace of them has been removed, along with the 
 greater part of the original cake of Old Red Sandstone. 
 
 Igneous Rocks. The Old Red Sandstone of this district is little 
 diversified with igneous rocks, a few greenstone dykes and a mass or 
 two of felstone being all of which it can boast. Dirrington Law rises 
 through the red sandstone series, but the strata there are so thoroughly 
 felspathic and contain such abundance of fragments of a flesh-coloured 
 or white felstone like that of the Law, that this igneous mass in all 
 likelihood is older than the Old Red Sandstone around it. The only 
 fact noticed by me which seems to favour the idea that the felstone of 
 the Law has broken through the sandstone series is the occurrence of 
 some veins of pale felstone traversing the sandstones in the bed of the 
 Kippielaw Burn below the shepherd's house. There are also some fel- 
 spathic veins in the Old Red Sandstone on the north-east side of Sontra 
 Hill below Huntershall, but these may really belong to the Silurian 
 rocks below and may be only protruding through the thin cake of con- 
 glomerate. On the north side of the village of Garwald a mass of 
 compact felspathic trap like apart of the Garlton series, to be afterwards 
 described, covers a space about three quarters of a mile long by nearly 
 half a mile broad. The red sandstones and marls dip towards it along 
 the course of the Papana Water. It may be an intrusive mass like 
 Traprain Law, or a sheet thrust horizontally into the Old Red Sand- 
 
 * When we trace the Lammermuir chain into that of the Moorfoots and find that 
 the Silurian uplands are there wrapped round, not with Old Bed Sandstone but with 
 Carboniferous strata, we are tempted to speculate on unequal movements, even in that 
 limited district. 
 
CALCIFEROUS SANDSTONES. 27 
 
 stone series, or an overlap of the igneous series upon the latter 
 formation, for its actual relations are obscured by deep drift. 
 
 The Greenstone Dykes traversing the Old Red Sandstone are marked 
 on the map by crimson lines and strips. They have a tendency to the 
 same clustered grouping which has been noticed above with regard to 
 the veins in the Silurian series. Thus at the head of the Aikengall Burn 
 three of them may be seen rising through the conglomerate. Another 
 group occurs at the head of the Powshiel Burn above Oldhamstocks, 
 where the singular aspect of these thin vertical walls of dark rock is 
 well shown. The conglomerate has weathered away, leaving a slim 
 stalk of pebble-crusted greenstone to stand out from it. Similar veins 
 and dykes occur further south in the channels of the Monynut, White- 
 adder, and Dye Waters, and some of their smaller tributaries. Some 
 good examples occur among the Hardens Hills, between Longformacus 
 and Dunse. Larger masses may be seen at Oldhamstocks, and at the 
 south-east corner of the map. Except in one or two places, tis between 
 Innerwick and Oldhamstocks, the greenstone dykes do not appear 
 to have risen through faults.* 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 LOWER CARBONIFEROUS [CALCIFEROUS] SANDSTONES AND SHALES, &c. 
 
 Basement Beds of the Formation. It was mentioned in the pre- 
 ceding chapter that the only part of the district depicted on the present 
 map where the Upper Old Red Sandstone and the Carboniferous 
 system come together without the intervention of a fault lies on the 
 eastern borders, in the neighbourhood of Oldhamstocks. The passage 
 beds between the two formations are partially seen in the channels of 
 the streamlets. But by far the best section is that which stretches 
 along the coast-line between the Siccar Point and the Cove Harbour. 
 This section, as will be seen by a reference to the map, comes into the 
 adjoining sheet (No. 34) of the Geological Survey. Since, however, 
 it is much more intimately related to the geology of the map now 
 under review than to that which lies to the east, its description has 
 been reserved for the present memoir. 
 
 Shore Section from Siccar Point to Thorntonloch.^ Taking up the 
 sequence of the strata along the shore at the Siccar Point, where it was 
 dropped in the foregoing chapter, we find the sandstones and marls 
 assuming a darker and more purplish tint of red than that brick- 
 coloured hue which characterises the Old Red Sandstone series. This 
 darker colour is a recognizable feature of the lower or basement parts 
 of the Carboniferous group of rocks throughout the Lothians, so that 
 in walking north-westwards from the Siccar Point the mere change in 
 the tint of the strata might of itself serve to direct our attention to 
 the fact that we are passing from the Old Red into the Carboniferous 
 sandstones. There is no sharp line of demarcation, however. We 
 cross bed after bed of red and purplish and white sandstone, greenish 
 marl or fireclay, and red cornstone, without being able to say exactly 
 where the one series is succeeded by the other. At last we reach some 
 bands of hard red calcareous honeycombed grit, and a calcareous 
 breccia overlying some grey speckled sandstones, and containing the 
 remains of plants, of which some are apparently stigmaria rootlets. 
 
 * See Cunningham's Geology of the Lothians, p. 99, and plate xii. fig. 1 ; and 
 Stevenson, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vi. 420. 
 
 f This coast-line was chiefly mapped by Professor Ramsay and finished by 
 Mr. Howell. ~ } -' 
 
28 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 These strata are decidedly Carboniferous. One of the fossils found 
 here by the Geological Survey deserves special remark, since it is 
 regarded by Mr. Salter as a cycadaceous plant of a new species.* 
 The inclination of the beds along this part of the coast line is a few 
 degrees to the west of north at an angle of about 25. 
 
 As we advance towards the north-west, the sandstones are observed 
 to become pale in colour ; in many of their courses, indeed, they have 
 a greenish hue passing into white, and show a concretionary structure. 
 The dip turns round more towards the north-west and the angle 
 increases until, on one of the headlands immediately to the east of the 
 Cove Harbour, it reaches as high as 80. There is no dislocation visible 
 along the shore, nor does this rapid rise in the inclination of the 
 strata appear in any way to interfere with the regularity of their order 
 of succession. At the promontory where the maximum angle is reached, 
 reefs of white, yellow, and grey sandstone run out to sea. These along 
 the inner ^art of the beach in the bay beyond are overlaid by some 
 shaly beds, among which the most interesting are three thin seams of 
 impure coal with fireclay. A mass of pinkish sandstone overlying 
 these softer beds forms another rocky headland, worn by the waves and 
 the weather into precipitous banks and clefts and long outrunning 
 skerries. The bay which lies on the west side of these rocks has been 
 scooped out of another series of soft shaly beds, inclined to N. by W. 
 at angles of 30 and 35. Some of the shales contain stems and leaf- 
 lets of Sphenopteris, and fragments of Lepidophylluin. But the most 
 fossiliferous stratum is a band of impure limestone full of encrinal 
 fragments, with specimens of Athyris ambigua, Edmondia unioniformis, 
 Modiola, Pteronites, Aviculopecten sanguinolites, &c. The western 
 horn of the Cove Harbour is formed by a mass of thick-bedded red 
 sandstone through which a tunnelled roadway has been driven for 
 about 200 feet. As the harbour is hemmed in by steep cliffs and banks 
 this tunnel forms the only way of approach from the landward side. 
 
 The red sandstones sink to the north under some red clay and black 
 shales which are inclined at an angle of 15 to 25. This dip, however, 
 speedily lessens towards the west until the angle is no more than 5. 
 Another group of white and yellow sandstone beds with bands of blue 
 shale and ironstone now occurs along the cliff line, from which the 
 beach below is strewed with tumbled ruins. The inclination of these 
 strata is very gentle. At the Reed Point they dip N.E. at 1 to 2. 
 They then flatten out and undulate along the shore as far as the mouth 
 of the Dunglass Burn which separates the counties of Berwick and 
 Haddington. In ascending that stream we find the sides of its channel 
 formed by the same thick bedded yellow sandstones with thin shaly 
 intercalations which give rise to the cliff-line along the shore. For 
 about a mile up the watercourse the inclination is easterly at angles 
 ranging up to 3 or 5. The beds then begin to dip at higher angles 
 towards the north, and we cross the same succession of sandstones and 
 shales which has been described as occupying the shore. 
 
 From the mouth of the Dunglass Burn north-westward along the shore 
 the same strata continue. They are nearly flat, forming horizontal reefs 
 on the beach, and running in long parallel courses on the face of the 
 steep bank or cliff that rises from high-water mark to a height of 100 
 feet or more above it. At Bilsdean Creek the stump of a tree 2 feet 
 in diameter and 1-J- feet high may be seen in the beds on the beach, 
 where the blue crumbling shale likewise contains fragments of stigmaria, 
 fern-stems, and other traces of Lower Carboniferous plants. Beyond 
 
 * See Appendix of Fossils. 
 
CALCIFEROUS SANDSTONES. 29 
 
 the mouth of Bilsdean Burn the thick groups of yellow sandstone 
 that form the cliff are seen to overlie a band of blue shale and to be 
 covered by about 20 feet of sandstone and shale beds. This band 
 of softer material at the base must aid the sea and the weather in the 
 gradual waste of the cliff. Indeed no feature of this coast-line comes 
 more impressively before the geologist than the evidence of the con- 
 stant erosion of the land and the consequent encroachment of the sea. 
 This process of decay is mainly the work of springs and rain loosening 
 the sandstones along their joint lines, and precipitating huge masses of 
 the cliff upon the beach. There the fallen ruin is attacked by the 
 waves, and as it is pounded into shingle and sand it becomes itself a 
 powerful auxiliary in battering down the cliffs against which it is 
 swung with the full roll of a north-eastern storm. Here and there the 
 recession of the steep bank has been unequal, and a fantastic grouping 
 
 t Q t Seaworn Pillar of- Sandstone called " Sfancfalane." 
 
 of arch and cave, buttress and tower, has been produced. At one of 
 these points, a short distance beyond Bilsdean Burn, a projecting mass 
 of the sandstone has been tunnelled through from side to side, while 
 between it and the sea a tall gaunt column of sandstone, once a part 
 of the cliff behind, and known to the fishermen as the Slandalane, 
 has been left alone upon the beach. 
 
 Beyond this sea-stack two faults, perhaps with no great throw, are 
 seen cutting through the sandstones and shales, both on the cliff face 
 and on the beach. The beds along the sides of these dislocations are 
 sometimes considerably twisted and broken or tilted up at a high 
 angle. On the further side of the faults sandstones and shales, like 
 those which overlie the thick yellow sandstones of Dunglass, occupy 
 the shore. Some of them are calcareous and contain worn burrows ; 
 indeed, at Linkhead, opposite the 34th milestone from Edinburgh, they 
 enclose a bed of coarse sandy limestone with similar wornburrows and 
 fragments of encrinites and obscure shells. To the north-west of this 
 rock the beach is obscured with boulder clay, and no rock is seen in 
 place for three-quarters of a mile, until at Thorntonloch white and 
 grey sandstones and blue shales begin to undulate at a low angle along 
 the shore. Many of these beds are full of fragmentary plants, some- 
 times in such abundance as to form an impure coal. The same strata 
 may be traced along the bed and banks of the Thornton Burn above 
 
30 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 Thornton Mill. They have been cut into a picturesque ravine between 
 the two old ruinous castles of Innerwick and Thornton, whence they 
 can be followed up the course of the stream until, bent and broken, 
 they end off abruptly against the greenstone that runs here along the 
 line of the fault which skirts the eastern end of the Lammermuir uplands. 
 
 About half a mile to the north of Thorntonloch we reach the top of 
 the Calciferous Sandstones and find them succeeded by the overlying 
 Carboniferous Limestone. In the coast section now described, from the 
 top of the Old Red Sandstone at Siccar Point to the bottom of the 
 Carboniferous Limestone at Thorntonloch the coast line crosses the 
 whole of the Calciferous Sandstone group. Yet 'it is difficult, perhaps 
 impossible, to obtain any satisfactory measurement of the thickness 
 which that group here attains. The dip of the beds from the Old Red 
 Sandstone at the Eastern Hole to the Lidsters below the hamlet of 
 Cove, is so clearly seen along the cliifs and beach that a protraction of 
 the angles of inclination is easily made. This is that part of the coast 
 section where the angle of dip is comparatively high. The thickness of 
 strata up to the Lydsters, where the inclination begins to flatten, is 
 about 1,150 feet. From that point north-westward as far as the bottom 
 of the limestone series at Thorntonloch the sandstones and shales, as we 
 have just seen, undulate gently along the shore without reaching any 
 great thickness. At some parts of the Dunglass cliffs a vertical section 
 of 100 feet maybe seen, and if we add another hundred feet for the beds 
 between the top of these cliffs and the limestone and between their base 
 and the more steeply inclined series of the cove, we get for the Calci- 
 ferous Sandstones in this part of the country a total thickness of 1,350 
 feet. This, however, is probably a moderate computation they must 
 exceed rather than fall short of that sum. 
 
 Calciferous Sandstones to the west of Dunbar. In the section just 
 described of the lower portion of the Carboniferous system from the 
 Siccar Point to Thorntonloch, nearly the whole of the Calciferous 
 Sandstone group is exposed along the shore. Yet not a single bed of 
 igneous rock varies the succession of sedimentary strata until these 
 dip under the Carboniferous Limestones of Skateraw and Cat Craig. 
 When the Calciferous Sandstones re-appear, however, from under the 
 limestones at Dunbar they present quite a new aspect. In addition to 
 the thick beds of sandstone and shale they now contain great masses of 
 igneous rock, in the form both of ash and felspathic trap, which from 
 Dunbar spread westward almost to the verge of the great coal-field. 
 These piles of volcanic material lie about the middle of the Calciferous 
 Sandstone group. They are underlaid by a set of red sandstones and 
 marls, probably not far from the top of the Old Red Sandstone, and they 
 are covered with white and yellow sandstones, shales, &c. which 
 separate them from the Carboniferous Limestone above. Arranged in 
 stratigraphical order, these subdivisions may be given thus : 
 
 Carboniferous 1 Limestones of Aberlady, Longniddry, Salton and 
 Limestone. / Crichton. 
 
 "4. Sandstones, shales, &c. 
 
 T p T / 6. Upper, or felspathic flows. 
 
 3. Lava-form rocks. { ^ $* Qr aug ? fcic flowg 
 
 Calciferous 
 Sandstone 
 group west of 
 
 Dunbar. 
 
 f* 
 
 Upper red ashy sandstones, 
 marls, &c. of North Berwick. 
 
 2. Ash and volcanic J &. Green ash with Burdie House 
 breccia. | limestone. 
 
 a. Lower red ash of Gin Head 
 
 L and Dunbar. 
 
 1. Red and white sandstones and marls, Canty Bay, Bel- 
 haven Bay, Dunbar. 
 (Base of Calciferous Sandstones not seen -west of Dunbar.) 
 
CALCIFEROUS SANDSTONES. 31 
 
 1 . Eed and White Sandstones and Marls. 
 
 The lower group of sandstones and marls (No. 1) is seen at intervals 
 along the shore from Dunbar westward as far as Canty Bay, beyond 
 which the overlying igneous rocks continuously occupy the coast line. 
 The best shore sections are those to be afterwards described on the two 
 sides of Belhaven Bay. The low sandy accumulations round the mouth 
 of the Eiver Tyne do not allow the rocks to be seen at the surface for 
 some distance inland. In the bed of the Biel Water, however, and like- 
 wise round the flanks of Traprain Law, the lower group (No. 1.) is 
 exposed. By comparing the dip of the strata throughout that district 
 we find that there is an anticlinal axis running in a north-east and 
 south-west direction from Belhaven Bay to Traprain Law, but dis- 
 appearing in the faulted ground between that hill and the town of 
 Haddington. On the one side of this axis the strata arch over to the 
 north-west, dipping under the vast overlying mass of igneous rock 
 between Traprain and the sea. On the other side they are inclined 
 towards the south-east, and pass under part of the same volcanic series. 
 Owing, however, to the effect of the large faults that skirt the Lammer- 
 muir Hills the continuity of the igneous rocks has been broken on the 
 latter side of the axis. The same ash under which the lower sandstones 
 and shales disappear to the north of Traprain Law likewise overlies them 
 to the south of that hill, and then stretches eastward for more than three 
 miles to the grounds of Biel, where it is finally cut out by a long fault 
 which lets down these Lower Carboniferous rocks against the Upper 
 Old Red Sandstone. Again, at Dunbar the under part of the volcanic 
 series is found overlying the lower sandstones and marls with a south- 
 easterly dip. 
 
 In the channel of the Biel Water these lower strata are laid bare from 
 Belton House as far up as the bend to the south of the Biel Grange, 
 beyond which they are succeeded by the overlying ash. They consist 
 there of red, grey, and white sandstones, marls, and green shales, having 
 a general gentle south-easterly dip. Westward white and yellow sand- 
 stones and shales, sometimes containing Carboniferous plants, are seen 
 round the foot of Traprain Law, on the north side of which they plunge 
 sharply under the ash. 
 
 Volcanic Rocks in the Calciferous Sandstone Series of East Lothian. 
 
 The lower group of sandstones and marls just described is surmounted 
 by a mass of igneous rocks chiefly mapped by Mr. Howell (Nos. 2 
 and 3), which range from the mouth of the Tyne to near Longniddry, and 
 from Traprain Law to the sea at North Berwick. But besides this com- 
 pact area they likewise stretch southwards, in a long, tapering projection, 
 almost to the base of the Lammermuirs, while far to the east they come 
 out in huge masses, along the cliffs of Dunbar. The extent of surface which 
 they now cover may be computed at about fifty-five square miles. Yet 
 this is but part of the area over which they must at one time have ex- 
 tended ; for there can hardly be any doubt that the ash of North Berwick 
 once stretched in an unbroken sheet across the low land round the mouth 
 of the Tyne, and joined that of Dunbar. This adds at least twelve or 
 fourteen square miles to the area of the igneous rocks. Again, the ash 
 of the shore-cliff sinks under the waves, and may run for miles out to sea. 
 On the west side of the Garlton Hills, too, the igneous masses dip 
 under later accumulations of sandstone, shale, &c., and may in like 
 manner stretch westwards, underneath, far beyond their present limit 
 at the surface. Large, therefore, as is the extent of ground now 
 covered by these volcanic ejections, it must be regarded as only a part 
 
32 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 of their original area. Only in one direction have we any satisfactory 
 evidence of the limit of their range ; their absence from the shore 
 .section from Skateraw to Siccar Point shows that neither the showers 
 of ashes, nor the flows of lava, reached as far eastward as that part of 
 the existing coast-line. But though these ejections once covered a 
 larger surface than that to which they have now been reduced, they 
 were at the best a mere local group. They differ considerably from any 
 other lower carboniferous igneous rocks in the wide basin of the Forth, 
 for, while basalts, greenstones, and pale yellow and green fine dust or ash 
 were emitted from countless volcanic vents, throughout West and Mid 
 Lothian and Fife, the ejections in East Lothian consisted of immense 
 masses of coarse, dull red and green breccia and ash, and many succes- 
 sive flows of felspathic lava. From all the carboniferous volcanic areas 
 in the eastern half of Scotland, that of Haddingtonshire is further dis- 
 tinguished by the wide area of its igneous accumulations, by their great 
 aggregate thickness, and by the comparative rarity of intercalations of 
 ordinary sedimentary materials. The growth of volcanic material over 
 the sea bottom seems to have been so steady and uninterrupted as to 
 leave only few and comparatively short intervals of quiet for the silting 
 up of the usual sand and mud.* 
 
 We shall now trace the history of the volcanoes of East Lothian, so 
 far as it can be made out from the rocks exposed at the surface. 
 
 2. Lower or Ashy part of the Volcanic Series. 
 
 By much the best section of the volcanic rocks of East Lothian is 
 that which has been laid bare by the sea along the coast- line between 
 Gullane Bay and Dunbar. The lowest rocks of that section, seen along 
 the sandy beach at the mouth of the Tyne, form part of that lower 
 group (No. 1.) of red and white sandstones and marls, already described. 
 On the west side of the river they dip towards the north-west, under 
 the great volcanic series of North Berwick ; while on the east side of 
 the Tyne, along the Belhaven beach, they dip in a south-easterly 
 direction, beneath the thick ash beds of Dunbar. If the section were 
 described in conformity with the stratigraphical arrangement adopted 
 in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey, we should begin at the Tyne 
 and trace the rocks upward, first through the series on the one side, and 
 then through the corresponding series on the other. I believe, however, 
 that in the present instance it will be of greater service to those who 
 wish to study this most instructive coast-section for themselves, if we 
 begin at the extreme west end, and examine tHe rocks that succeed 
 each other towards the east, as far as the east end of the town of 
 Dunbar. In so doing we shall begin at the base of the upper or 
 felstone series, and pass over a descending series, chiefly of ashy rocks, 
 until at the Tyne Sands we reach some of the lowest of the Calciferous 
 Sandstones. Crossing the river, we return over the same lower strata, 
 and reascend through the same ashy series, until the continuity 
 of the section is broken by a fault which skirts the south-eastern 
 suburbs of Dunbar. 
 
 Coast Section from North Berwick to Dunbar. Underneath the 
 felstones of the Cowton Rocks, a group of shore-reefs about half-a-mile 
 west from North Berwick, lies a series of dull red felspathic sandstones, 
 marls, green shales, and ashy beds, dipping towards the north-west. 
 These strata are in thin beds, and seem to have been formed by the 
 
 * Eor the history of the Lower Carboniferous volcanoes of West and Mid Lothian, 
 see Memoirs of Geol. Survey, Geology of the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh, p. 32 et seq. 
 
VOLCANIC ROCKS IN CALCIFEROUS SANDSTONES. 33 
 
 intermixture of volcanic dust with ordinary sediment. They contain 
 numerous calcareous nodules in certain bands, but their most noticeable 
 intercalation is a bed of thinly laminated fissile limestone, with 
 siliceous layers in a crumpled, blistered arrangement. Some smaller 
 beds of the same kind of rock occur with it. It rests upon a green, 
 well-bedded ash, or ashy sandstone, sometimes beautifully ripple- 
 marked and containing thin bands of limestone. These various strata 
 undulate along the beach, till they are cut through by the boss of fine- 
 grained, felspathic greenstone which has been worked at the Point 
 Quarry. To the north of this rock the ashy strata dip northward, but 
 the inclination soon swings round to the east, and we then find exposed 
 on the beach ledges of dull reddish felspathic sandstone, marl, and 
 shale, shading into what might be regarded as true ash. These strata 
 are made of rapid alternations of fine and gritty sediment, without 
 large stones ; they show the green spots and bands of discoloration so 
 well known in the Old Red Sandstone, and they contain thin, hard, 
 calcareous bands and nodules. They are pierced by another intrusive 
 greenstone, which extends across the opening of North Berwick Bay, 
 forming the skerries of the Leap Rocks, the Swinie Craigs, the Maidens, 
 the Maiden's Foot, and the eastern horn of the bay called the Plattcock, 
 on which the harbour has been built. The ashy strata, however, seem 
 to cover the inner part of the bay. On the west side of the greenstone 
 they dip due east, at an angle of about 20 ; on the reefs that skirt the 
 greenstone, to the east of the harbour, the dip has changed round to 
 north-west, at angles of from 8 to 15. The flat beach affords a most 
 instructive section of these rocks. They are there seen to consist of 
 a red, felspathic, marly ash, like that to be afterwards described at 
 Dunbar, full of small angular and rounded fragments of various por- 
 phyritic felstones, sandstones, shales, red marl, and limestone. Bands 
 of red sandstone and marl are interstratified with the ash, and the 
 whole has a stratification so well defined as even, in some parts, to take 
 a fissile structure. The resemblance of this rock to the ash of Dunbar 
 holds true, not merely in general aspect but even in points of detail. 
 The stones are perhaps, on the whole, smaller here than they generally 
 are at Dunbar ; but there is the same interlacing of the stratification at 
 both places, the same false bedding, and the same alternation of coarse, 
 pebbly ash with layers of finer texture and more shaly structure. 
 
 Eastward, near the Yellow Craig, this red part of the ash is under- 
 laid by a green-coloured well-stratified ash, with intercalated seams of 
 coarse limestone shale and some thick beds of white false-bedded sand- 
 stone. Where first seen the paste is greenish, fine-grained, full of 
 small variously tinted angular felspathic lapilli. The included stones 
 are few and small in size. A boss of greenstone, forming the Yellow 
 Craig, sends veins into this ash, of which the beds are there curiously 
 crumpled. At the cliff known as the Parian Craig a fine section of 
 these volcanic rocks is shown. The ash there seems to underlie the 
 thin-bedded portion just described, although the inclination of the 
 beds at the Partaii Craig is towards the south-east. This rock runs 
 through different shades of green and red, is coarse in texture and con- 
 tains large fragments of an older ash thrown through its mass at 
 random. Some of these pieces are three or four feet long and two or 
 or three broad. The stratification of the cliff, though still traceable, 
 has lost much of the distinctness which was seen to mark the ash on 
 the beach further west, nor are there here any of those intercalations 
 of sandstone and shale which served to mark off the ash at North 
 Berwick in separate zones. Though not seen on the shore, however, there 
 are nevertheless some important interstratified deposits in the ash only 
 
 c 
 
34 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. , 
 
 a short way inland. One of these, consisting of sandstone and red marl, 
 is exposed at the upper end of the little ravine called the Glen, where 
 the beds dip gently towards the north-west under the ash. -My col- 
 league, Mr. Ho well, who mapped this district in detail, was disposed to 
 consider these strata as probably on the same horizon with the sand- 
 stone and black carbonaceous shale seen below the west front of North 
 Berwick Law, with a sharp dip away from the hill and under the ash. 
 But a more interesting intercalation in the ashy series is the limestone 
 which has been largely worked at the Rhodes Quarry. Its exact 
 relations to the ash of Par tan Craig are not very clear, for there may 
 be some faulting between the quarry and the sea. That the limestone 
 lies in the ash, however, is abundantly evident from its internal character 
 and from the ashy layers which cover it. The lowest and chief lime- 
 stone visible in the quarry is a massive bed, thirty feet thick, of a firm 
 compact texture, dark bluish grey hue, and splintery fracture. It 
 contains crumpled laminae and irregular patches of chert, but no fossils 
 were observed. It is surmounted by a group of greenish and grey ashy 
 marls, more or less calcareous, with thin seams of limestone and cal- 
 careous shale, in which I noticed fragments of linear grass-like leaves. 
 These overlying strata are in some cases made up of thin laminae of 
 limestone or shale and chert. Here and there they have a crumpled 
 and finely -mamillated surface like the beds that are associated with 
 the limestone of Kirkton, near Bathgate, in Linlithgowshire, but not 
 quite so definitely marked.* The traces of chemical decomposition and 
 the consequent formation of new compounds are well seen in certain 
 brown, soft, decomposing bands, which are mainly held together by long 
 flat crystals of sulphate of lime. This mineral seems to have resulted 
 from the decomposition of iron pyrites and limestone, the iron still 
 remaining as a brown earthy powder. The laminas of chert are 
 sometimes so thin and flinty in texture that when dropped upon a stone 
 they break into pieces with a ring like the shiver of a sheet of glass. 
 
 Returning to the shore at the Partan Craig, and advancing still east- 
 wards, we begin to enter upon a series of thoroughly volcanic rocks. 
 They consist of a dull green felspathic ash, full of small angular and 
 rounded fragments of various felstones, with pieces of sandstone, shale, 
 limestone, &c. The bedding is marked off by alternate bands of a 
 coarse volcanic breccia and a finer-grained gravelly ash, the whole, as 
 seen a little east of the Craig, having a dip towards the north-west. 
 After passing the Craig, we find that for a short way few of the im- 
 bedded stones exceed a foot in diameter, and that they consist chiefly of 
 felstone. A little further on, however, they begin to increase in size, 
 and a number of most instructive sections maybe studied on the beach. 
 The strata there exposed pass in part into a coarse volcanic breccia in 
 which the fragments, sometimes 18 inches or 2 feet in diameter, 
 consist chiefly of various felstones and an older stratified ash, with 
 pieces of greenstone, sandstone, limestone, and other rocks. In other 
 portions of the deposit the texture is much finer, and the ash even 
 assumes the aspect of a green felspathic sandstone. These coarser and 
 finer alternations succeed each other rapidly as before, and thus, though 
 the stratification of some particular bed may not be clear when taken 
 apart from the rest of the series, the stratified character of the whole is 
 manifest, as we proceed from higher beds and pass eastward over the 
 extent of those which underlie them. Some of the details of the stra- 
 
 * See Memoirs of Geol. Survey, Geology of Neighbourhood of Edinburgh, Sheet 32, 
 p. 50 ; and Descriptive Catalogue of Rock Specimens in the Museum, Jermyn Street, 
 3rd edit., pp. 92, 100. 
 
VOLCANIC ROCKS IN CALCIFEROUS SANDSTONES. 
 
 35 
 
 tification, indeed, are full of interest. Thus between Partan Craig and 
 the reefs of the Leithies there is a remarkable false-bedding in some of 
 the strata. It would seem as if a layer of ash had been thrown down 
 or heaped up into mounds, against and over which the next ashy 
 deposits were laid down from an opposite quarter. At a part of the 
 beach where an interrupted bed of cement-stone occurs in the ash, some 
 of the finer bands are curiously crumpled. In the subjoined woodcut 
 two of these bands are shown with a bed of the coarse breccia between 
 them. 
 
 Fig. 7. Section of coarse brecciated Ash between two contorted 
 Limestones. Shore about a Mile East of North Berwick. 
 
 The upper one is thrown into repeated folds and much jumbled 
 between blocks of felstone and other rocks, which seem to have been 
 ejected from some volcanic orifice and to have fallen heavily upon the 
 sand and mud at the sea bottom, contorting and squeezing these soft 
 strata. Opposite the Leithies the ash is still coarser. Huge blocks of 
 greenstone are here enclosed in it, along with large masses of shale and 
 cement stone, which, shot out in mass, have been shivered on reaching 
 the ground. One of these greenstone blocks measures 7x5x5 feet, 
 and must weigh about thirteen tons ; but a part of it has probably been 
 removed by the sea, and even now some portion is concealed in the ash. 
 These greenstones are dark coloured, dull, or crystalline in texture, with 
 augite crystals, and sometimes full of amygdaloidal kernels. The Leithies 
 consist of a similar rock intruded into the ash. 
 
 The dip of the ash along this part of the coast line is on the whole at 
 gentle angles, first towards the south-east at the Partan Craig, then 
 towards the north-west and west, opposite the Leithies. At the latter 
 locality some thin shaly parts occur in the ash, but the coarse tumul- 
 tuous character of the deposit speedily returns and becomes as strongly 
 marked as ever. Two curious basalt dykes are here exposed on the 
 beach ; each consists of two limbs, of which the one runs towards the 
 W.N.W., the other towards the S.W. Their sides are moulded to the 
 ash of which the stones are firmly fixed into the basalt, the latter being 
 a very hard compact black rock weathering with a vesicular surface. At 
 the headland of Leckmoram Ness the ash dips south-east at a high angle, 
 and then, after turning gently over to the north-west, it almost ceases 
 to show any trace of stratification. Blocks of dark greenstone now 
 become very abundant, while the felstones are only seen in pebbles, 
 small in size, and comparatively few in number. Here, and indeed 
 throughout the whole ash, calcareous matter is abundant as a paste 
 cementing the pebbles together. It occurs sparadically, as if from the 
 decomposition of limestone fragments scattered promiscuously through 
 the ash. Fragments of wood are also found occasionally in the ash. 
 
 o 2 
 
36 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 At Canty Bay, white and reddish sandstones and reddish marls dip 
 towards the north and north-west, apparently underlying the ash now 
 described, though their exact stratigraphieal relations are obscured by 
 a fault. Perhaps we have here an arch of sandstones coming to the 
 surface from underneath the great ashy series of deposits between 
 Canty Bay and North Berwick. At least at the east side of Canty Bay 
 these sandstones pass regularly under a dull green granular ash full of 
 stones, and resembling some of the rocks just enumerated. Another 
 fault, crossing the beach from N.W. to'S.E., soon cuts off the sand- 
 stones by bringing down a higher portion of the ash against them, and 
 only a few yards beyond it a mass of basalt covers the beach. This 
 rock is black in colour, save where, from its numerous veiiiings of ser- 
 pentine, it takes a greenish hue. Where first seen by one who comes 
 from the west it weathers with a singularly rugged dark surface, not 
 unlike that of a recent coulee of lava. In the green-tinted parts the rock 
 becomes dull, earthy, and decomposing, sometimes, however, with balls 
 of a hard compact texture imbedded in the midst of the softer portions. 
 This basalt is a truly intrusive rock, for though on its west side at 
 Canty Bay it looks like a sheet that overlies the ash of the beach, a 
 short way eastward it is seen to cut through the ash in several direc- 
 tions, and to involve large masses of it between ramifying veins and 
 knobs. 
 
 The coast-line abuts upon the sea between Canty Bay and Tantallon 
 Castle in a precipitous promontory called the Gin Head, where a noble 
 section of the ash has been laid bare. The rock as there exposed is a 
 coarse volcanic breccia with no apparent bedding ; huge bombs of green- 
 stone, ash, sandstone, &c., lie imbedded at all angles in a dull green 
 granular felspathic paste, and the section is further diversified with 
 dykes of basalt, one of which is beautifully columnar. Turning round 
 the eastern angle of this headland, we find the cliff receding sharply to 
 the south and revealing another vertical face of the ash, where, however, 
 there are traces of stratification with a westerly dip. The base of the 
 cliff is fringed with a dyke of basalt which thus separates the ash from 
 a set of white sandstones, like those of Canty Bay, that occupy the 
 beach. The basalt not improbably occupies the line of a fault ; as it 
 goes southward, it covers more and more of the face of the cliff until it 
 occupies nearly the whole from top to bottom. There can hardly be 
 any doubt that the white sandstones below the Gin Head are the same 
 as the corresponding strata of Canty Bay. If, therefore, the basalt 
 dyke running south from the Saddle Rock coincides with a line of fault, 
 the depression is probably only a slight one on the west side. South of 
 the Gin Head another fault runs -across the beach from the eastern 
 margin of the dyke. Its throw is to the south, and it has brought 
 down the lower part of the ash against the sandstones. On the south 
 side of this fault, where the basalt begins to slope up the cliff, the 
 greenish ash is found to shade downward? into a coarse dark red ash, 
 of which there is a thickness of only some 20 feet before we reach a 
 band of cement stone with red and white sandstones. Some of the 
 internal contents of the ash at this point furnish some information as to 
 its history. The lower parts of the upper green mass contain, in 
 addition to their bombs of greenstone and other rocks, numerous frag- 
 ments of red ash and red sandstone. The red band of coarse volcanic 
 breccia that comes below in like manner incloses many pieces of green- 
 coloured ash, along with a large admixture of red blocks and pieces of 
 red sandstone, sometimes three or four feet long. These ashy deposits 
 indeed seem to be made up chiefly of the ejected fragments of an older 
 series of similar rolcanic and sedimentary strata. As just mentioned, 
 
VOLCANIC KOCKS IN CALCIFEROUS SANDSTONES. 37 
 
 they rest upon a thin band of argillaceous limestone or cement stone, 
 dipping towards the north-west and underlaid by a series of red and 
 white thin-bedded fissile sandstones, probably part of the same series as 
 at Canty Bay and below the Gin Head. Between the latter promontory 
 and the picturesque headland of Tantallon Castle the coast-line retires 
 into a small sheltered bay. Along the beach at this indentation the 
 sandstones are cut off by a fault running out to sea, and bringing down 
 again to the level of the sea the green and a part of the red ash. It will 
 be seen that as the average inclination of this series of volcanic deposits 
 is towards the north or north-west, lower parts should be continually 
 encountered as we proceed eastward along the shore. But these numerous 
 faults, though their throw is perhaps in no case considerable, have the 
 effect of repeating , the same part of the ash again and i?gam," and thus 
 making it occupy a much greater breadth of surface than it would other- 
 wise do. The Canty Bay sandstones, for instance, are let down again 
 at the Gin Head ; immediately to the south their upper parts are depressed 
 once more by the fault on the beach, 450 feet south of the Gin 
 Head, while in the little bay another fault brings in again the ash, which 
 rising up into the high cliffs of Tantallon occupies the shore for a mile 
 to the east, until the sandstones begin to rise from under it as before ; 
 nor until we reach the broad sandy tracts that lie around the mouth of 
 the Tyne do we get fairly below the ash and among the sandstones and 
 marls at the base of the Carboniferous series. 
 
 Returning again to the little bay between the Gin Head and Tan- 
 tallon Castle, let us trace the new development of the ash where the 
 deposit has been thrown down once more by a fault. The bold cliffs 
 of this part of the shore rise fully a hundred feet over the beach. 
 They are formed of a coarse dull green felspathic ash, abounding in 
 large rounded bombs of greenstone, but with no very determinate 
 stratification. Immediately below the western battlements of the 
 castle, however, it contains a lenticular band of white false-bedded 
 sandstone that runs along the edge of the cliff, and dies out towards 
 the south. Some small veins of basalt traverse the ash at the mouth 
 of the ravine on the south side of the castle. The largest and most 
 abundant of the stones in the ash along this part of the shore are of 
 greenstone ; next in importance come pieces of an older ash, some- 
 times red and pebbly like the red zone to the west of the castle. Large 
 blocks of hard grey sandstone with smaller pieces of red sandstone, 
 marl, and coarse grey limestone also occur. To the south of the ruin 
 the cliffs recede into another little indentation called Oxroad Bay, on 
 the west side of which some basalt dykes and veins have been squirted 
 through the coarse unstratified ash. Immediately to the south-east 
 another fault introduces us to a higher part of the series, where with 
 the prevailing greenish hue the bedding is well shown, and dips 
 towards S.S.E. at an angle of 20 25. After passing still another 
 dislocation in Oxroad Bay we encounter well-stratified ash similar to 
 though probably a little higher than that which occupies the centre of 
 the bay. Here, however, it is varied by the intercalation of a number 
 of thin lenticular bands of a coarse limestone and beds of green fissile 
 shaly and ashy sandstone with ripple marks. These calcareous bands 
 are markedly lenticular, coming in and rapidly dying out as they 
 extend along the cliffs. They are further remarkable for the extra- 
 ordinary crumpling and contortion sometimes visible in their com- 
 ponent layers. This structure, like that of the limestones at the 
 Rhodes quarry and the Kirkton quarries of Linlithgowshire, can be 
 traced even into the minutest laminje of the limestone. It cannot be 
 due to a disturbance subsequent to the deposition of the whole series, 
 
38 
 
 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 for the strata which overlie these crumpled bands are themselves quite 
 regular. The subjoined figure represents a section laid bare by the 
 
 Fig. 8. Section of contorted Limestone overlaid by undisturbed 
 strata, Oxroad Bay, Tantallon Castle. 
 
 waves, where one of these bands is covered with fine fissile grey 
 ashy beds, which instead of following the corrugations below lie upon 
 them unconformably, filling up the hollows of the limestone, and 
 passing in regular undisturbed layers above the ridges. Along the 
 east side of the Oxroad Buy the cliff consists from top to bottom of 
 rapid alternations of various ash beds, with these thin limestones or 
 cement stones and bands of fissile and ashy sandstone or shale. As a 
 whole the ash there is fine grained and well stratified. Many of its indi- 
 vidual strata contain scarcely a single stone, but are made up of fine 
 yellowish or greenish grey felspathic lapilli mixed with a little sand ; 
 others might be called a laminated felspathic mud-stone, while some 
 are pebbly and gravelly, and take a variety of tints from the changes 
 in the colour and composition of their lapilli. Even in the finest- 
 grained bands, however, stones of as much as eight inches or one foot 
 in length are occasionally though very rarely to be seen. 
 
 To the east of the Oxroad Bay the section increases in variety and 
 interest. The green-coloured beds among which the limestones occur 
 begin to assume a reddish tint as they approach the skerry of the 
 Gegan ; but after rounding the headland they resume their green tint 
 near the ruin of St. Baldred's House. If the observer follows the 
 beds along the shore and compares their character and position with 
 those of the strata that form the cliffs overhead, especially at the head- 
 land opposite the Gegan, he begins to see that between the two series 
 there is no small discrepancy. In truth the rocks of the cliff rest uncon- 
 formably on those of the beach, as shown in the subjoined woodcut. 
 
 Fig. 9. Section of Cliff of Ash, opposite the Gegan. 
 
VOLCANIC ROCKS IN CALCIFEROUS SANDSTONES. 39 
 
 The ash-beds of Oxroad Bay are found to steal over the edges of an 
 older series, which, like the red zone to the west of Tantallon, rests 
 directly upon the sandstones and shales. At the top of the cliff there 
 is a bar of reddish fine-grained sandy felspathic ash (d) without stones. 
 Under it come the alternations of ash and limestone (c) so well seen 
 along the shore. eastward from the middle of Oxroad Bay. The bottom 
 of this series is formed of a coarse breccia of ash fragments (b) lying 
 on the edges of the older ash-beds ().* This older deposit is well 
 stratified. Its upper portion as seen on the beach is green, and dips 
 westward at an angle of 27. Towards the base of the cliff also a 
 similar green colour is visible, but seaward the same bed assumes a 
 deep red tint, and the bedding of the ash is well marked off by harder 
 bands that stand up prominently on the beach. Among the imbedded 
 stones pieces of red sandstone and marl are abundant, along with 
 various felstones, lying firmly in a dark red sandy and pebbly felspathic 
 paste. 
 
 This red ash is probably the same as the red pebbly ash which over- 
 lies the sandstones south of the Gin Head. It is at least a hundred 
 feet deep, and forms the lowest member of the thick group of volcanic 
 ashes between North Berwick and the Tyne. It is probably the 
 equivalent of the ash of Dunbar. Its base is seen a little to the south- 
 east of the Gegan resting upon thin-bedded marls and sandstones 
 which lie in nearly flat sheets along the beach, but with a slight 
 westerly inclination under the ash. After crossing these gently in- 
 clined strata for a short way we come to some very coarse red 
 volcanic breccia in one or more patches. Round the edge of this 
 rock the sandstones and marls are broken up, and large pieces are 
 involved in the breccia. The latter rock comes in again a short way 
 further north on the beach, and runs out to sea in the reef called the 
 Car. This part of the shore is unquestionably the site of one or more 
 volcanic orifices. The circular patch of breccia below SeaclifF House 
 breaking through the sandstones and marls is a true neck, and was 
 probably one of the vents from which some of the ash already de- 
 scribed was ejected. This breccia fills up the cracks and crevices of 
 the strata through which it protrudes in a manner for which no system 
 of ordinary faults will account. f 
 
 Beyond these curious relics of the old volcanic orifices the same red 
 and white sandstones and marls are again seen with the same gentle 
 westerly dip. The direction speedily veers round more to the north- 
 west, and the angle rises to as much as 40, though from 15 to 25 is 
 the usual inclination. Some thick bands of very red marl occur on this 
 part of the beach with seams of green marl interspersed through the 
 red and hard white or grey sandstones. Part of this series is thrown 
 out by another fault, on the east side of which the dip of the strata is 
 reversed in an easterly direction. After an interval of 60 or 70 
 yards another fault cuts off these sandstones and brings in again the 
 same red felspathic ash. A good deal of confusion occurs in the 
 relations of the different rocks to each other along this part of the 
 shore. The ash is in some places inclined towards E.S.E. at as high 
 an angle as 65, and is likewise traversed by numerous parallel joints 
 which have a gentle northerly dip, and give a deceptive appearance of 
 stratification. Its line of junction with the red and white sandstones 
 
 * The unconformity which is so strongly marked opposite the Gegan may, how- 
 ever, be only local, the upper green part of this older ash merging in that case west- 
 ward into the base of the ash and limestone group above it. 
 
 f This intrusive character of volcanic breccia and ash is still more wonderfully 
 exhibited along the shore of Fife, and to the east of Dunbar, as will be pointed out a 
 few pages further on. 
 
40 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 and marls can be traced along the beach near low- water mark, running 
 nearly vertically from north-west to south-east. The strata which 
 it comes against are remarkably curved and contorted, large portions 
 of them being fairly imbedded in the ash. To the south of Chapel 
 Brae the sandstones and marls are truncated by an easterly fault, on 
 the south side of which occur the same fine red marls that underlie the ash 
 to the north-west of Seacliff House. At this part of the coast in like 
 manner they underlie, indeed pass up into a very red felspathic ash, 
 which, where laid bare along high- water mark, is exceedingly coarse 
 and contains blocks of red and white sandstone and ash sometimes 
 two or three feet broad. It is traversed by the same deceptive joint- 
 ing-planes just described, at first inclined towards the north and then 
 swinging round to the east. There is no true dip, however, to be made 
 out in the ash here, which is indeed a coarse tumultuous volcanic 
 breccia. After a short distance the ash turns up again, and its under- 
 lying marls and sandstones come to the surface with a sharp dip 
 to N.N.W. under the ash. These strata continue along the shore for 
 some 300 feet until they are obscured by a sandy part of the beach 
 which conceals the rocks below. On the south-east side of this inter- 
 ruption, dark red well-bedded felspathic ash occurs dipping westerly 
 at 29 to 30. This rock may be regarded as a part of the lower red 
 zone of ash brought up finally by a fault which may cross the beach 
 where the rocks are covered with sand. The same ash continues along 
 the shore until the broad flat tracts of the Peffer and Ravensheugh 
 Sands completely bury all the rocks and stretch over the beach for fully 
 a mile. 
 
 When the rocks come again to the surface at the further side of the 
 Ravensheugh Sands the ash is found to have disappeared, and its place 
 is taken by red and white sandstones and marJs, having a general 
 north-westerly inclination at gentle angles. These strata, however, 
 are pierced by several small bosses of compact porphyritic felstone, 
 some of which strongly resemble in texture the larger neck-like masses, 
 such as Traprain Law. Nor is this similarity confined merely to the 
 internal character of the rock. Where the felstone on the shore is 
 seen free from the tidal silt on the one hand, and the blown-sand of 
 the Tynningham Links on the other, it bears the same kind of relation 
 to the surrounding strata as the neck-like bosses of ash just described. 
 This is best shown round the edges of the nearly circular patch of 
 porphyritic felstone that forms the headland of Whitberry Point at 
 the north-east corner of the Tynningham Woods. This rock has a 
 dark compact felspathic base with large crystals of augite scattered 
 through it. The sandstones dip towards it all the way round, save for 
 a short way on the south-west side where the junction of the rock is 
 concealed under the bent. If the angle of inclination were low, it 
 might be supposed that this felstone is really the remaining fragment 
 of a larger sheet once spreading over the sandstones but now removed, 
 save what is left to form the low headland. Instead of this arrange- 
 ment, however, we find the surrounding sandstones dipping at high 
 angles (20-55) immediately round the edge of the felstone, the 
 inclination rapidly decreasing as the strata recede from the igneous rock. 
 The handle of a table-knife pushed down vertically through a pie-crust 
 
 Fig. 10. Section across " Neck " of Felstone, Whitberry Point. 
 
VOLCANIC HOCKS IN CAILCIFEROUS SANDSTONES. 41 
 
 would give an illustration of the way in which the strata are bent down 
 round this column of felstone. In these curious bosses of intrusive 
 rock we perhaps see other traces of the ancient volcanic vents through 
 which were ejected the immense heaps of ashes and lava that cover so 
 large a part of the northern half of East Lothian.* Beyond these fel- 
 stones the same red and white sandstones and marls are found in 
 gently inclined beds dipping to the north-west until at last the wide 
 sands at the mouth of the Tyne conceal them. 
 
 For a space of nearly two miles the shore is wholly covered with sand. 
 It is not until we come to the east side of Belhaven Bay that the rocks 
 come again to the surface. When they appear at last they are found 
 to be red, white, and greenish sandstones, blue shales, red marls, and 
 seams of clay-ironstone dipping towards the S.S.E. at from 5 to 15. 
 Comparing their character and inclination with those of the strata at 
 Whitberry Point it is easy to see that the whole form part of one series 
 lying near the base of the Carboniferous formation. As already men- 
 tioned there must be a line of anticlinal axis which passes out to sea 
 in Belhaven Bay. The thick ashy deposits with their underlying sand- 
 stones and marls are bent over this axis and brought in again along the 
 Dimbar shores. In walking eastward therefore from Belhaven Bay to the 
 beach below Dunbar Church we cross the same group of rocks in 
 ascending series as we passed over in descending order from the reef of 
 the Gegan to the mouth of the Tyne. 
 
 Coast Section from Belhaven Bay to Shore East of Dunbar. The 
 Calciferous Sandstone series which is exposed on the beach to the 
 east of Belhaven Bay contains in some of its beds abundant traces 
 of plants and even stems of Stigmaria. It is traversed by several 
 dykes of greenstone, connected with each other, and trending in an 
 E.N.E. direction. One of them may be traced across the beach for a 
 distance of fully 600 yards. These igneous rocks not improbably date 
 from the same period of volcanic activity which saw the ejection of the 
 thick ash-beds and felstones. A patch of fine red ash and sandstone 
 with ripple-marks occurs at the low-water edge of the beach to the 
 north of the point. Its relations with the sandstones and shales are 
 not very clear, for the boundary line is either a fault, or belongs to that 
 singular class of vertical junctions already noticed, and to which more 
 special reference will immediately be made. After passing over a 
 thickness of probably between 200 and 300 feet of sandstones, shales, 
 and ironstones, we find that the gentle south-easterly dip has increased 
 to an angle of 35 and upwards, that the strata are bent and broken, 
 and that they are abruptly succeeded by a coarse dull red felspathic 
 ash rising at once into a steep cliff. The actual relation of the sand- 
 stone series to this volcanic rock is somewhat obscured. As we trace 
 the rocks eastward the sandstone series is found to have the end of its 
 strata truncated against the ash, but a little further on the ash is seen 
 to graduate downward by frequent intercalations into the sandstones. 
 This latter arrangement is I suppose the normal one, for even where 
 the boundary between the two series is a jumbled broken line the ash 
 
 * Why the strata should be thus bent inwards is a question not easily solved. In 
 the case of a solid column of felstone or basalt the contraction of the melted mass on 
 cooling may have had some effect in dragging down the sides of the orifice. And 
 where the column consisted of ash or breccia perhaps a similar result may have been 
 produced by the subsidence of the loose mass into a solid compact rock, or by afailure 
 of support at the bottom of the column. In no instance, probably, do we now see the 
 original surface opening of these columns. A considerable amount of solid rock has 
 been removed from the whole of them by denudation, hence the depression of the 
 strata round the sides of the orifice may have taken place not at the surface but at 
 some depth below it. 
 
42 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN'. 
 
 contains beds of pale greenish sandstone exactly like those in the sand- 
 stone series itself. The irregular junction does not seem to be a mere 
 fault, it rather belongs to the same class of disturbed junctions just re- 
 ferred to. 
 
 The ash which now occupies the whole of the beach, and runs east 
 in a line of high cliff, is a truly volcanic-looking rock. It is of a dull 
 red or reddish-brown colour, and on the whole is well stratified. It is 
 made up for the most part of rapid alternations of a fine marly clay and 
 a granular or gritty mixture of small felstone fragments. These thin 
 layers give the cliffs a striped appeamnce, and show themselves on the 
 beach in the unequal way in which they yield to the waves. The 
 coarsest part of this deposit is that at the base where, joining the 
 
 Fig. 11. View of Ash-cliffs, west of Dunbar. 
 
 Calciferous sandstones, it passes into a kind of trappean breccia. 
 In composition the ash is highly felspathic and ferruginous, as if derived 
 from the trituration of felspathic lavas. In one or two places I found 
 the paste to contain broken crystals of black mica. Imbedded in 
 this dull granular felspathic paste are numerous angular, subangular, 
 and rounded fragments, chiefly of different felstoues, but also of red 
 sandstone, limestone, marl, and other rocks, with occasional fragments 
 of carbonised wood. In one of the pieces of limestone fish-remains 
 were noticed. The stones are as a whole small, sometimes we see a 
 block of aniygdaloidal felstone measuring a foot or two across, but this 
 is not common. Some of the felstone bombs have a rounded compact 
 outer surface with a vesicular interior, others consist merely of a round 
 shell partially filled with red powder, as if they had been spirted out 
 in a melted state and sent up whirling into the air as bubbles of lava. 
 The stones are wholly absent from some parts of the ash, and abundant 
 in other portions. 
 
 The dip of the ash is at first at a high angle to the E. and S.E. It 
 then wheels round to the north-east at a lessors ^1 angle, and continues 
 with this inclination till succeeded on the beach by sandstones. It is 
 
VOLCANIC ROCKS IN CALCIFEROUS SANDSTONES. 43 
 
 traversed by some dykes of greenstone on the beach, having the same 
 general strike as those in the sandstone series to west ; similar augitic 
 trap occurs in the skerries outside, while inland on the eminence of 
 Knockenhair the ash is pierced by a ferruginous porphyritic trap. 
 
 The eastern boundary of the ash is another sharp irregular line. The 
 sandstones which a few yards away from the ash dip towards the 
 south-east, are bent down against the volcanic rock, which is likewise 
 jammed into their crevices. And not only are they thus depressed, 
 but as they approach the ash their bedding becomes less distinct, they 
 are jumbled, jointed, and hardened, and weather with a rough carious 
 surface very different from the aspect of the same rocks away from the 
 ash. From this point eastward to the Castle the beach is occupied by 
 red and white sandstones, sometimes coarse and pebbly, and dipping 
 towards the E. or S.E. They are considerably twisted and broken round 
 the intrusive knob of basalt called the Dove Rock, and still more when 
 they reach the mass of basalt that forms the Dun on which the Castle 
 stands. That rock is a very hard fine-grained flinty basalt traversed 
 by innumerable more or less parallel joints and veins of calc-spar 
 which give it a fissile structure. In some places, particularly at its 
 junction with the stratified rocks, it assumes a dull texture and a red 
 colour, and the sandstones and shales in contact are greatly hardened. 
 On the east side of the Castle, before the Victoria Harbour w^as made, 
 part of the sandstone series was exposed in ledges dipping towards the 
 east and succeeded by the ash. On the north side of the new harbour 
 the ash is still seen dipping east. The Battery stands upon a rock 
 which seems to overlie the ash, though its relations are not quite clear. 
 It is a compact purplish grey porphyritic felstone with a columnar 
 structure. The columns are mostly five or six sided, closely compacted, 
 and seem each built up of successive spheroids, weathering with con- 
 centric haematitic veinings arranged round an undecoinposed nucleus. 
 The rock is traversed with strings of calc-spar and calcedony, and clips 
 toward the mouth of the Broad Haven, the columns being placed at 
 right angles to the plane of the dip.* Rising apparently from under- 
 neath this rock some well-bedded ash with thin sandy layers is seen at 
 the head of the Broad Haven close to the drawbridge. It is much 
 curved, twisted, and faulted, but seems to pass under the columnar 
 rock of the Battery. 
 
 On the east side of the old harbour the shore for half a mile presents 
 a horizontal section of great interest. Immediately below the harbour 
 bulwark coarse red ash is seen for a few yards, and is then cut off 
 against another succession of sandstone beds, the junction line being 
 sharply defined, and running across the beach in a north-easterly 
 direction. The same jumbled altered appearance is presented by the 
 sandstones where they approach the ash. On the east side of this line 
 of demarcation the beds of reddish and grey sandstones which cover 
 the beach dip towards the E. and S.E. until they are interrupted by 
 a mass of red ash a rock resembling that at the harbour, and on the 
 whole coarser and more tumultuous than that of the coast to the west 
 of Dunbar. In some parts it is very coarse, wholly unstratified, and 
 contains fragments of various porphyritic and amygdaloidal felstones, 
 red and green ash (the green fragments showing well-defined stratifi- 
 cation), cement stone, sandstone, marl, &c. In other places the rock 
 
 * Dr. Macculloch (System of Geology, vol. i. p. 172) regarded this rock as a sand- 
 stone altered and rendered columnar by heat. Its true igneous origin was recognized 
 by Cunningham (Geology of the Lothians, p. 97), who called it " a very fine granular 
 ferruginous felspathic greenstone." There are rocks very like it, both in mineral- 
 ogical composition and in its peculiar spheroidal style of weathering, among the shore 
 skerries to the west of North Berwick. 
 
44 
 
 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 becomes finer, contains few or no stones, and shows lines of bedding 
 which seem to be vertical or highly inclined. The junction of this 
 ash with the sandstones on its southern edge has been laid bare by the 
 waves. At the lower part of the beach the boundary line between the 
 two formations would be taken for an ordinary fault, since the sandstones 
 are cut through sharply and much broken along the junction. Higher 
 on the beach, however, the ash is found to have insinuated itself 
 between and across the sandstone beds, which are much hardened, and 
 have been bent down towards the ash at an angle of 60 or more. If 
 no further section than this could be referred to it might still be held 
 that this junction is only an abnormal kind of fault, though on that 
 supposition it would not be easy to explain why the ash so constantly 
 presents such sharp vertical junctions, nor why the sandstones should 
 so invariably show signs of alteration. But the evidence grows clearer 
 and more abundant as we proceed southwards along the beach. 
 
 A few yards further on the sandstones are again succeeded by 
 ash a coarse, reddish-coloured, tumultuous mingling of abundant 
 fragments, sometimes three feet long, of yellow, green, and red sand- 
 stone, various felstones, and other stones imbedded in a dull felspathic 
 paste. The ash comes through the yellowish and reddish sandstones 
 and marls exactly like a dyke. These strata dip E. 10 N. at from 
 15 to 20, and they are crossed by the ash in a curving band varying 
 from six or seven yards in breadth at the upper part of the beach to a 
 breadth of 16 yards nearer low- water mark, where it curves round as if 
 to join the ash just described. If the rock were greenstone it would 
 occasion no difficulty, for it would be set down at once as a trap-dyke. 
 But when in place of a lava-form rock, which would rise in a melted 
 state, and solidify in a fissure, we meet with a fissure filled with coarse 
 volcanic conglomerate the explanation of the phenomenon is not so 
 
 Fig. 12. Eye-sketch {Ground-plan) of "Neck" of Ash in Calciferous 
 Sandstone, Beach, east of D unbar. 
 
 \ 
 
 The arrows mark the dip. The dotted lines on the ash show the strike of its 
 layers, and the strike of the sandstone is indicated by the straight lines. The irregular 
 lines on the sandstone round the edge of the ash are meant to express the alteration 
 which the sandstones there undergo. 
 
VOLCANIC ROCKS IN CALCIPEROUS SANDSTONES. 45 
 
 simple. The boundary lines between the ash and the sandstones on 
 either side are sharp, sinuous, and steep, or vertical. I do not think 
 they can be explained as lines of fault. Moreover there is a tendency 
 in the stones of the ash to arrange themselves with their long axis 
 parallel to the sides of the " dyke." The mass is not stratified, but 
 there seems to be some relation between the arrangement of its larger 
 flatter stones and the direction of its sides. Fragments of the same 
 kind of sandstones which bound the ash occur here and there abundantly 
 in it. 
 
 The sandstones and marls resume their place on the beach, and 
 continue to dip in an easterly Direction at angles ranging from 15 to 
 25. Below the Slaughter Houses they are invaded by another mass 
 of ash. and as this is the last and most interesting of the sections 
 showing the relation of the ash to the stratified rocks, it deserves a 
 more detailed description. The above rough sketch (fig. 12) represents 
 a ground plan of the beach at this point. It was drawn merely by the 
 eye, and makes no pretension to accuracy of proportion, but it will be 
 found, I think, to represent correctly the main geological features there 
 exposed. 
 
 As the sandstones approach within 15 or 20 feet of the lush, they 
 begin to show traces of alteration. The bedding becomes less distinct, 
 the jointing more abundant, and the rock weathers 1 with a singularly 
 rough carious surface, very unlike the aspect of the same beds away 
 from the ash. This zone of rough sandstone reefs encircling the ash 
 can be detected from some distance. Within a space of two or three 
 yards from the edge of the ash the bedding of the sandstones is in 
 some parts wholly obliterated, while in other places it can be traced 
 in a vertical and broken position. The sandstones are then much 
 hardened. At several points they are prolonged into the ash in narrow 
 tongues, like veins of igneous rock, and these prolongations consist of 
 a hard red or speckled fine-grained sandstone. 
 
 As shown in the ground-plan (fig. 12), these stratified beds are 
 perforated by a rudely semicircular mass of ash, the boundary line 
 being irregular, curving, and for the most part vertical. If this ash 
 were a coarse un stratified agglomerate it would naturally be regarded 
 as volcanic material filling up an ancient orifice. But, strange to say, 
 it is on the whole well stratified, sometimes full of thin seams of red 
 sandstone, the dip being towards the west, always at a high angle, and 
 sometimes vertical. At the south-east side the texture is much finer 
 than on the opposite side, where stones, often very angular, and some- 
 times, but rarely, several feet in diameter, are more abundant. In 
 general character the ash is a fine-grained, sandy, felspathic, stratified 
 rock of a dull purple or grey colour, mottled with white felspathic 
 lapilli. I cannot give any satisfactory explanation of this singular 
 geological phenomenon. But it seems clear that these vertical junctions 
 of the ash with the sandstones are not always mere faults, but belong 
 in some way to the series of volcanic changes of which the ash itself 
 is a memorial.* 
 
 Immediately beyond this section the beach is traversed by a line of 
 fault on the farther side of which lies the Upper Old Red Sandstone. 
 This ends the shore-section of the Carboniferous volcanic rocks. 
 
 Continuation of the Ash of the Shore inland. From the map it 
 will be seen that the thick mass of ash which has been laid bare by the 
 
 * Besides that on the North Berwick shore above described, similar orifices filled 
 with ash occur on the shore of the east part of Fife. But after examining all the 
 sections I am as much at a loss as ever for an explanation of them. 
 
46 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 waves along the shores of the Firth stretches inland as a broad 
 winding belt which skirts the eastern side of the felstone hills, 
 following their sinuosities of outline until it is cut off by one of the 
 long north-easterly faults. It will be understood that the strata 
 forming this band have a westerly inclination, and sink below the 
 felstone of the hills. The general character of the ash has been given 
 in such detail from the coast section that it is unnecessary to describe 
 its features in the interior. Some of the localities where it is best 
 seen, and especially where its associated limestone can be traced, may 
 be referred to here. That calcareous zone appears to retain the same 
 interrupted character in the interior which marked its occurrence on 
 the shore-cliff. It is seen in two quarries near the mansion house of 
 Rockville. Some miles to the east it occurs at the lodge of Tynning- 
 hame House, about three furlongs north from the village. Keeping 
 still the same relative position to the great overlying felstone sheets, it 
 is seen at the railway opposite Phantassie, East Linton, dipping under 
 a mass of fine red marly ash. Thence it may be followed southward to 
 Sunnyside near Traprain, where it has been extensively quarried. 
 The sections of the rocks at this locality are among the best in the 
 ashy series of the interior. From Sunnyside westward the limestone 
 disappears, but the ash in which it lies continues to rise from under the 
 felstoues in a band of varying breadth which does not come to an end 
 until it reaches the town of Haddington, where it seems to be cut off 
 by a fault that flanks the Garlton Hills on the south. It is last seen 
 in the quarry at Amisfield Mains, where it is a compact rock, with 
 angular pieces of different felstones and scattered crystals of felspar, 
 many of which are broken. 
 
 On the south side of the anticlinal axis of Belhaven Bay, as I have 
 already mentioned, the ash arches over against one of the long Lam- 
 mermuir faults. It brings with it its limestone band, which has been 
 worked at Hollandside to the east of Traprain Law, and is like- 
 wise exposed in a good section of the ashy beds in the ravine of the 
 Biel Burn opposite Ruchlaw Mill. Five miles to the south-west some 
 red and green ash was observed by Mr. Howell to the east and south 
 of the old church of Bara. This is the last trace of it in a south- 
 westerly direction. We may now pass on to the great overlying 
 felstone series which forms so marked a feature in the geology of East 
 Lothian. 
 
 3. Lava-form Part of the Volcanic Series. 
 
 Above the lower ashy zone of the volcanic series of East Lothian 
 comes a thick group of lava-form rocks. They occupy a tolerably 
 compact area, which, lying chiefly to the north of Haddington, rises into 
 the group of the Gaiiton Hills, and stretches north to the sea between 
 Weak Law and North Berwick. When these hills are seen from the 
 north or south they show, in the outline which they make against the 
 sky, that they are made up not of an irregular mass of igneous rock but 
 of successive beds which dip gently away to the west, and present a 
 set of low irregular escarpments to the east : and such is found on a 
 closer examination to be the structure of the Garltons. But though the 
 bedded character of the rocks is shown by their external features, by 
 their abundant amygdaloidal structure along certain planes, and by an 
 occasional well-marked dip, it is difficult to separate out the felstones 
 into different flows, and it was found impossible so to map them. The 
 only division which was found practicable by Mr. Howell, who sur- 
 
VOLCANIC HOCKS IN CALCIFEROUS SANDSTONES. 47 
 
 veyed the greater part of the ground, was that adopted on the map, 
 viz. : 
 
 6. An upper thick group of felspathic traps, forming the Garlton Hills, 
 and stretching southwards between Whittingham and Linplum. 
 
 a. A lower and much thinner series of felspathic traps, with augite 
 crystals (greenstones), extending as a band between the ash below 
 and the traps above, from Traprain Law by Linton, Whitekirk, and 
 Balgone to Fenton Tower. 
 
 . The rocks of this lower group are distinguished by their dark red 
 colour, and by the crystals of augite, sometimes large in size and 
 abundant in quantity, which are scattered through the felspathic 
 base. They are composed of a felspar and augite, but they differ 
 widely from the common greenstones or dolerites of this country. 
 They are in truth felstones made porphyritic by containing scattered 
 crystals of augite.* 
 
 At Hailes Castle on the south bank of the Tyne this group of rocks 
 is well seen in a range of low cliffs overhanging the river. It is suc- 
 ceeded on the north bank by the felstone series, and southwards at Old 
 Hailes it overlies the red ash and white sandstone, which dip north at 
 an angle of 40. From this point the augitic felstones may be traced 
 eastward by Kippielaw (where they appear to contain a lenticular 
 band of red compact felstone) to Traprain. They are there underlaid by 
 a red felstone, occasionally augitic, which comes in between them and 
 the ash. They then wheel with the other rocks to the north, and when 
 they reach the sloping ground overlooking East Linton they seem to 
 die out, and the felstones above and below them come together, or the 
 augite which they contain diminishes or disappears, so that they are no 
 longer separable from the other felstones. About a mile to the north- 
 east of Preston, however, we meet with them again in a quarry on the 
 road to Tynningham. Thence in a narrow strip they pass north 
 between the Tynningham limestone and the main felstone mass of the 
 Garltons, and, keeping along the base of Lawhead Hill, turn sharply 
 westward to Newbyth. They then begin rapidly to increase in thick- 
 ness as they bend towards the north-east, until in Whitekirk Hill they 
 form a band nearly three quarters of a mile broad. In some of the 
 crags and knolls in this part of their course these augitic rocks contain 
 augite in such abundance that they might almost be called greenstones 
 or even basalts. Turning once more west they strike for Balgone 
 House, where they rise sharply from the lower ground in the line of 
 crags called Balgone Heughs. At this point they are again strongly 
 augitic, and attain their greatest breadth. But as they turn south- 
 westward they once more rapidly narrow, keeping to the south of Rock- 
 ville House, and circling westward to near the limestone of Burnside. 
 Augitic rocks are again seen at Fenton Tower, but they are then 
 covered over with drift, and cease to be traceable. They seem to die 
 out between this point and the shore, for the rocks which overlie the 
 ash to the west of North Berwick differ considerably from those just 
 traced. Although it is possible to trace an augitic zone along the base 
 of the lava-form rocks of East Lothian from Traprain to Fenton Tower, 
 the boundary line between it and the other trap-rocks which lie above it is 
 by no means accurately deiined, so that while in some places it looks like 
 a distinct series of flows, in other parts it seems, by losing its augite, to 
 
 * The term felstone is used in this memoir as a generic term for those trap-rocks 
 which are made up wholly or almost wholly of a felspathic base, perhaps in most 
 cases orthoclase. But the traps of the lower zone (a) would sometimes probably be 
 called mdaphyres by continental geologists. The nomenclature of the igneous rocks 
 of this country is at present in a very unsatisfactory state. 
 
48 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 merge into the other felstones. Due south from Traprain Law a similar 
 augitic band lies upon the felstone series. It forms the line of cliff 
 called Blaikie Heugh, on the north side of the road between Cross- 
 gatehall and Cockielaw, whence it runs south beyond the West Mains 
 of Papple. It is a dark red rock, having large crystals of augite 
 scattered through a felspathic base.* In different parts of the felstone 
 series also augite occasionally occurs, but not in such quantity as in the 
 augitic band at the bottom. 
 
 b. The thick felstone series which overlies the rocks just defined 
 covers an area of somewhere about 40 square miles. It is made up, as 
 I have said, of successive sheets of felstone, sometimes compact fine- 
 grained, sometimes strongly porphyritic, sometimes amygdaloidal, and 
 even openly vesicular like a slag. As these diversities, however, cannot 
 be satisfactorily traced out on the map, the whole series has been coloured 
 as one. There is a want of good continuous sections, although the 
 rocks come to the surface in many crags and knobs. Perhaps the most 
 instructive exposure is that on the beach to the west of North Berwick ; 
 those in the railway to the east and west of Linton are also good. 
 
 Shore Section) West of JVorth Berwick. The ashy strata already 
 described as occupying the beach at North Berwick are overlaid, a 
 little to the west of the town, with a group of felspathic beds forming 
 the shore reefs, known as the Cowton Rocks. These masses thus lie 
 at the base of the lava-form series, the dark augitic zone, which forms 
 the lower part further inland, having here disappeared. The Cowton 
 rocks consist of grey porphyritic felstone, disposed in a number of 
 beds, which dip gently towards W.N.W. and form successive ledges 
 on the beach. In some beds the porphyritic structure is strongly 
 marked, and in others the rock is not only porphyritic but highly 
 amygdaloidal, the cavities being occasionally six inches or more in length, 
 and filled with calc-spar. There is also a frequent tendency among 
 these rocks to weather spheroidally, the large round balls being 
 crusted and veined with a hcematitic staining like that round the 
 columns of the porphyry at Dunbar Harbour. This structure, how- 
 ever, is better seen among some other felstones further west, near Weak 
 Law. The division of these rocks into distinct beds is here and there 
 shown by a coarse nodular band made up of balls and irregular pieces of 
 highly amygdaloidal felstone. It looks like an ash or volcanic ag- 
 glomerate, but it may be the rough slaggy top or bottom of a flow. 
 The upper part of the Cowton Rocks is coarsely porphyritic, with 
 numerous amygdaloidal kernels, such as might be looked for along the 
 upper surface of a lava-stream. The union of these large and abundant 
 cavities, however, with a profusion of large felspar crystals is interest- 
 ing, for it would appear that these crystals must have been already 
 formed when the slaggy surface of the felstone was in motion. 
 
 Immediately to the west of Carlekemp plantation the Cowton 
 felstones are covered by a series of flaggy felspathic sandstones and fine 
 brecciated conglomerates (belonging to the group marked 4 in the table, 
 p. 30), having a gentle westerly dip. These strata have evidently 
 been derived from the waste of the felstones on which they rest. They 
 are seen in ledges on the beach lying upon the Cowton rocks, and also in 
 a quarry a few yards inland from high- water mark. A much better 
 section, however of the same, or similar, strata occurs westward at 
 Weak Law. As we trace the beds away from the Cowton porphyry we 
 find their stratified character less marked. Sheets of a very hard red 
 felspathic rock occur on the beach, sometimes with a flaggy structure, 
 
 * It is called by Hay Cunningham a porphyritic basalt. (Geol Lothian, p. 89.) 
 
VOLCANIC ROCKS IN CALCIFEROUS SANDSTONES. 49 
 
 in other places nodular and lumpy, like an ash, or even finely caver- 
 nous, like an amygdaloid. Perhaps it is an altered form of the felspathic 
 sandstones, for close to high- water mark it appears to be pierced 'by a 
 mass of highly amygdaloidal porphyritic felstone; and again, a few 
 yards further north, on the beach, lies the shore-reef of the Black 
 Murphies, a brown porphyritic felstone, with crystals of glassy felspar. 
 
 For more than half a mile beyond this point the shore is covered by 
 the Broad Sands, and, save in a small felstone skerry, called Bubbly 
 Buss, no rock is seen, until, among the sandhills that surround the 
 Yellow Craig, we meet with knobs of a dull dirty-green nodular ash, 
 made up chiefly of subangular and rounded fragments of different 
 felstones in a paste derived from the trituration of the same materials. 
 No bedding is traceable, but very little of the rock is seen. The 
 Yellow Craig is a mass of very compact flinty basalt, with olivine. If 
 the form of the ground here be any indication of the relative area of 
 the rocks, it may be inferred that the Yellow Craig is a neck-like mass 
 rising through the ash. On the beach to the north lie the shore-reefs, 
 which end at Longskelly Point. Towards the east they consist of a 
 hard fine-grained basalt, like that of the Yellow Craig. Westward, 
 veins and strings of this rock run into the felstones which form the 
 greater part of the Longskelly reefs. Portions of ash, like the Yellow 
 Craig ash, are involved in the basalt ; but the relations of the rocks to 
 each other on this part of the beach are not very clear. In mapping 
 this/district it appeared probable to Mr. Howell that a fault ran north- 
 eastward from near the northern horn of Gullane Bay to the Broad 
 Sands, and that the Longskelly reefs were thus a repetition of the 
 Cowton rocks. It is at least certain that the porphyries of the one 
 locality closely resemble the other, and that they are both overlaid 
 with a series of highly felspathic sandstones. The felstones at the 
 Longskelly rocks show the same dull grey colour on the weathered 
 surfaces, inclining sometimes to a greenish and sometimes to a purple 
 hue. The greater portion of them is strongly porphyritic and amygda- 
 loidal, the cavities being sometimes six inches long, filled chiefly with 
 carbonate of lime, a mineral which likewise runs through the mass in 
 veins and threads. Some parts of the series consist of a compact, fine- 
 grained, finely crystalline felstone, which contains a few scattered 
 amygdaloidal kernels, and weathers into the spheroidal iron-crusted 
 balls already referred to. The Longskelly rocks are thus made up of 
 a succession of flows, and the rude bedding can be seen to have a gentle 
 westerly dip. The bedded character of the rocks is further shown by 
 occasional jumbled parts, as if made by the blending of different flows, 
 and by certain noticeable bands of a coarsely amygdaloidal character, 
 which seem to mark the surfaces of successive sheets. 
 
 Tracing these felstones westward to Weak Law, some interesting 
 sections are met with. A little to the east of that locality the felstone 
 of the beach is a compact purplish-grey porphyritic rock, having a 
 general resemblance in colour and lithological texture to the columnar 
 porphyry of Dunbar Harbour. The likeness is further and still more 
 closely borne out by the spheroidal masses with concentric ferruginous 
 crusts and veinings, which are seen on the weathered surfaces of the 
 rock. Large rounded balls of pale felstone are thus found protruding 
 from an outer dark red iron- stained rind. It is the piling of such balls 
 above each other which gives rise to the columnar structure at Dunbar, 
 but there are no columns here. Balls of limestone, perhaps the result 
 of infiltration into large vesicular cavities, occur now and then in the 
 rock, which is in places highly amygdaloidal. The upper surface of 
 the felstone is readied just below the house at Weak Law. Owing to 
 
50 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 the low angle it may be traced for some distance, both on the beach 
 and along the base of a low cliff. It is wavy and irregular, and the fel- 
 stone is highly amygdaloidal, the kernels being lengthened in different 
 directions, according to the motion of the spheroidal masses on the 
 upper part of the old lava. In some places the rock seems a compacted 
 mass of balls of amygdaloid, round which the cavities are drawn out ; 
 in short, the whole aspect of the rock at this locality reminds one of 
 the slaggy upper surface of a recent lava-flow. On this uneven 
 surface, and filling up the inequalities, lies a group of yellowish, flaggy, 
 highly felspathic sandstones and fine breccia. (Group No. 4 of the 
 table at p. 30.) These strata resemble those -already noticed in the 
 beach below the Carlekemp plantation, and have evidently been largely 
 derived in the same way from the waste of the felstones below. They 
 are nearly flat, undulating along the shore till they take a gentle 
 westerly dip. Hence, detached wave-worn outliers of them may be 
 seen on the beach, perched here and there upon the surface of the 
 felstone, as in the subjoined figure. The sandstones below Weak Law 
 
 Fig. 13. Denuded Fragments of a Felspathic Sandstone Bed, lying 
 on the slaggy top of a Felstone Beach at Weak Law. 
 
 are jointed, false-bedded strata, of which the ordinary sedimentary 
 origin cannot be mistaken. Traced westwards, however, they take a 
 more complex character. They retain their yellowish tint, arid are seen 
 to be made up of alternations of coarse and fine material, some of the 
 beds consisting of angular fragments of different felspathic rocks, as if 
 they were sedimentary deposits derived not merely from the waste of 
 old lava flows, but also in part from the ejection of volcanic ashes and 
 lapilli. Near the Hanging Rocks a bed of soft green ash occurs in the 
 series, which, about this part of the beach, is coarser and more ashy- 
 like, as a whole, than at any other point. The stratification has been 
 much disturbed, the beds being sometimes thrown into rapid curves. This 
 is well seen a little to the west of the Hanging Rocks, where a bed of 
 greenish stratified felspathic ash, containing angular pieces of different 
 felstones, lies in a basin among the hard felspathic strata. Some of these 
 rocks are markedly calcareous ; and as we advance westward, bands of 
 a hard flinty limestone (sometimes dotted with fragments of plants and 
 fish scales) begin to make their appearance. Dark shales likewise 
 come into the series, and though the yellow colour and felspathic 
 character predominate, the rocks assume more and more the aspect of 
 ordinary sedimentary deposits. But the stratification continues much 
 involved ; bosses of dark compact divine-basalt break through the 
 beds at a number of places marked on the map. At the furthest 
 north of these protrusions a beautiful columnar porphyritic basalt has 
 disturbed a series of strata, consisting of dull yellow flinty limestone 
 (full of fragments of plants), jumbled up with calcareous felspathic 
 sandstone, dull blue calcareous shale, black shale, and cement stone. 
 Similar strata, pierced by frequent masses of basalt, occupy the beach 
 as far as the basalt at the northern horn of Gullane Bay, south of 
 which the coast is obscured by blown sand. 
 
 Returning now to the felstone series, we find that the singularly 
 coarse amygdaloidal structure, so noticeable at the Longskelly and 
 
VOLCANIC ROCKS IN CALCIFEROUS SANDSTONES. 
 
 51 
 
 Cowton Rocks on the shore, is replaced inland by a more compact 
 texture. The prevailing character of the felstone composing the 
 Garlton Hills is that of a fine-grained, splintery rock, sometimes finely 
 crystalline and homogeneous, such as used to be called a "compact- 
 felspar," or full of scattered crystals of glassy felspar. On a fresh frac- 
 ture the predominant colour is a pale bluish or purplish grey, which 
 changes on the weathered surfaces into various hues of grey, yellow, 
 and brown. No intercalations of ash, or other stratified material, have 
 been met with among these hills, though if there were better sections 
 such intercalations would probably be found. The bedded character of 
 the felstones, however, can easily be traced. 
 
 In the railway cuttings between Phantassie and Markle some good 
 sections are obtained of the structure of the felstone beds in the 
 interior. The lower augitic zone (a) already described is found resting 
 upon the red ash with its limestone bed, and passing under the overlying 
 felstone series which, to the west of East Linton, shows the succession 
 of beds given in the accompanying woodcut. The bed marked No. 1 
 
 Fig. 14. Section of Felstone Beds in Railway Cutting to the West 
 
 of Linton. 
 
 is a soft decomposing felstone, highly porphyritic and amygdaloidal, 
 saturated, as it were, with carbonate of lime, which has, in places, 
 formed pseudomorphs of the other minerals, such as felspar; westward 
 it becomes more compact. No. 2 is a firmer and finer-grained, dark- 
 coloured, porphyritic rock, with amygdaloidal kernels, which are most 
 numerous at the top and bottom, where this bed seems to shade into the 
 softer beds above and below. The third bed resembles the first, and 
 the fourth is like the second. 
 
 Volcanic Necks. As the materials ejected by a volcano collect in 
 thickest mass around the orifice, it is for the most part only after much 
 denudation that in the case of ancient volcanic ejections the original 
 orifice is now to be seen. Hence the number of recognizable volcanic 
 vents must be less than the number of areas where well-marked 
 volcanic rocks are to be found. When such vents are met with they 
 are usually filled with some hard lava-form rock, such as greenstone, 
 basalt, felstone, &c., which rises up into a prominent knob or hill, 
 having a circular outline that corresponds with the shape of the hole 
 wherein the melted matter rose and hardened. These masses are 
 called " volcanic necks." In the description of the shore section 
 between North Berwick and Dunbar, a number of singular 'neck-like 
 patches of ash and one of felstone at Whitberry Point were pointed 
 out. 
 
 There are, however, two masses of intrusive rock on a much larger 
 scale than those on the shore, and in shape and composition resembling 
 true volcanic necks. One of these is North Berwick Law, the other 
 Traprain Law. North Berwick Law may be described as a round or 
 slightly oval plug of felstone which comes up vertically through the 
 ash, and when it reaches the surface of the ground tapers up into a 
 cone of which the top is 612 feet above the sea. The rock on the 
 
 D 2 
 
52 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 higher part of the hill is a compact and finely crystalline clinkstone, 
 Avhile further down it becomes more loose and granular in texture. At 
 the foot of the cone, on the west side, sandstone and black shale (strata, 
 probably, in the ashy series) are seen to dip away from the felstone at 
 an angle of 30. But round the rest of the hill the relation of the 
 rocks to each other is obscured by a thick coating of drift. Traprain 
 Law is an irregularly shaped mass of compact felstone (clinkstone), 
 sometimes porphyritic, and showing at the Black Cove Quarry a striped 
 structure like that in some lavas from Ascension Island and some fel- 
 stones from Snowdon, in the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn 
 Street, London.* It rises out of white sandstones and shales which on 
 the north and east sides may be seen dipping away from it on angles of 
 from 30 to 50. 
 
 4. Sandstones, Shales, fyc., overlying the Felstone Series. 
 
 These strata lie between the top of the igneous rocks and the base 
 of the Carboniferous Limestone. They have been partly described in 
 the foregoing account of the coast section to the west of North Ber- 
 wick. Referring to that description, it will be seen that the strata 
 which overlie the trappean rocks have been in great measure derived 
 from the waste of these rocks, but that they also contain beds of ash 
 which indicate that even after the close of the eruptions of felstone the 
 volcanic forces still continued to throw out fitful showers of dust and 
 stones. Taking up the coast section where it was dropped at Gullane 
 Bay, we find that at the southern end of the blown sand beds of white, 
 yellow, and grey sandstone, grit, shale, and fireclay, appear on the 
 beach with a dip towards W. by S. at 10-15. In the Laird's 
 Quarry, below Gullane Hill, the following section has been exposed : 
 
 Yellowish-white sandstone. 
 
 Fireclay (with thin parting of coal), 6 inches. 
 
 White sandstone. 
 
 Fireclay (with coal parting), 6 feet. 
 
 "White sandstone with beds of fireclay. 
 
 These and similar strata are found on the beach, interrupted by some 
 thick beds of greenstone, of which one forms the long ridge whereof 
 Gullane Hill (222 feet above the sea) is the highest point ; another 
 gives rise to the shore reef of the Hummell Rocks, while a third runs 
 from Gullane Point for more than a mile to the south-east, peeping here 
 and there through the sands of the links. Along the east side of 
 Aberlady Bay white and grey sandstones (with occasional plants) are 
 here and there visible, and at last these, which form the highest part of 
 the Calciferous Sandstones, pass under the Carboniferous Limestone 
 series of Aberlady. 
 
 ARCH. GEIKIE. 
 
 Haddington Group of Calciferous Sandstone Strata.^ Under this 
 heading are here included the same sandstones and shales, with thin 
 seams of coal, &c., just described, as they extend inland from the shore 
 section between North Berwick and Aberlady Bay. past the town of 
 Haddington to the foot of the Lammermuir Hills. 
 
 * See Descriptive Catalogue of Specimens in that Museum, 3rd edit. p. 101. A 
 suite of specimens to illustrate the rocks of the Lothians will be found in the Museum. 
 (Catalogue, pp. 75-112). 
 
 f This concluding section of the above chapter is by Mr. Howell, 
 
CARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONE. 53 
 
 In the low grounds around Luffness, and through which Peffer Burn 
 flows, no rocks of any description are seen, the whole of the strata 
 being covered by superficial deposits. A thin bed of limestone, pro- 
 bably of the Burdiehouse age, was pointed out to me at New Mains near 
 West Fenton by Mr. Hope, of Fenton Barns, but it Avas impossible to 
 trace it beyond the actual point where it had been dug. It was in close 
 proximity to the two intrusive dykes of greenstone which are shown on 
 the map at this place. 
 
 With the exception of a quarry of sandstone which occurs at the con- 
 Tent in the grounds of Luffness House, and where the strata are seen 
 dipping beneath the lowest bed of limestone of the Carboniferous Lime- 
 stone series, there are no sections of these upper beds of the Calciferous 
 Sandstone series to be seen till we come to Redhouse Dean, which lies 
 about two miles to the east of the Longniddry Station, between the 
 main line of the North British Railway and the Haddington branch, 
 which joins at this point. Here the strata, consisting of red, white, 
 and yellow sandstone, are seen dipping to the west, beneath the over- 
 lying limestone beds at Longniddry, and to the east of the Dean resting 
 on the underlying porphyry of the Garleton Hills, and against which 
 they have been deposited. A thin bed of coaly shale, with fireclay 
 underneath, occurs associated with the sandstone here. It may possibly 
 be the same bed which is seen at Gallane Point. 
 
 In the valley of the Tyne around Haddington these strata spread out 
 over a considerable area, lying nearly horizontally, but with a slight rise 
 to the east and south-east between Haddington and Gifford till they 
 are brought against the Upper Old Red Sandstone and Lower Silurian' 
 strata, by the large fault which runs along the northern flank of Lam- 
 mermuir Hills. 
 
 At Coalston, near Haddington, some thin seams of coal were formerly 
 wrought, but no records of the extent of the workings exist. A few thin 
 seams of coal are known to occur in these strata, probably on the same 
 horizon as those which are seen cropping out on the coast near Cove. 
 A thin seam of coal, with fireclay below, is seen cropping out by the 
 side of the Dean near Fala. It is about 18 inches thick, and may pos- 
 sibly be one of the seams which occur at Coalston and at other places. 
 These coals, however, must not be confounded with those of the Car- 
 boniferous Limestone series, which in stratigraphical position lie far 
 above them. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONE SERIES. 
 
 The general section of the Carboniferous Limestone Series of Had- 
 dingtonshire is similar to that of the adjoining county of Edinburgh, con- 
 sisting of beds of marine limestone interstratified with sandstones, shales, 
 coals, and ironstones, &c. The limestones form two separate groups, 
 and occupy distinct horizons in the series, the lower containing the 
 main beds, lying at the base of the formation. The upper group, which 
 is only partially developed in the East Lothian coal-field, occurs about 
 500 feet above the main beds, and is represented in this district by two 
 thin limestones on the coast at Portseton, near Cockensie, which are the 
 equivalents of the two lowest of the upper limestone group in the Mid- 
 Lothian coal-field. The beds of coal and ironstone which are wrought 
 in the East Lothian coal-field lie between these two groups of lime- 
 
54 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 stones, and are well known to be the same as the lower or " edge " 
 seams of Mid-Lothian. 
 
 Lower Limestone group. The strata forming this group consist 
 generally of three principal beds of limestone, separated by inter- 
 vening strata of sandstone and shale, with one seam of coal from 
 10 inches to a foot thick, which immediately underlies the second 
 bed. By referring to the Geological Survey Map, Sheet 33, it will be 
 seen that these three limestones together form a broad zone encircling 
 the East Lothian coal-field on the east and south-east, being a continua- 
 tion of the same zone which marks- the southern extremity of the 
 adjoining coal-field of Mid Lothian in the Geological Survey Map, 
 Sheet 32. 
 
 Although these limestones are in three distinct beds, it has not been 
 possible to draw the boundary of each separately, except on the coast at 
 Aberlady Point, where the following descending section is exposed at 
 low water : 
 
 1. Basalt and Greenstone of Craiglaw Point. 
 
 2. Sandstone and calcareous shale. 
 
 3. Limestone, 6 feet. 
 
 4. Sandstone and shale. 
 
 5. Limestone, 10 feet. 
 
 6. Seam of coal, 10 inches, and fireclay under. 
 
 7. Shale. 
 
 8. White Limestone, resting on the Calciferous Sandstone. 
 
 The lowest bed of limestone here rests upon the sandstones and shales 
 of the Lower Carboniferous series. It contains the following fossils : 
 Productus sp., Athyris ambigua, Rhynchonella pleurodon, Lithostro- 
 tion junceum, and L. irregular e. The shale which overlies the limestone 
 is eight feet thick, and above the shale is a thin seam of coal about 
 10 inches thick, resting on a bed of fireclay. 
 
 The second bed of limestone rests immediately upon this seam of coal. 
 It is 10 feet thick, of a light blue colour and crystalline, containing 
 numerous encrinites, and also the following fossils : Rhynchonella 
 pleurodon, var., Fenestella plebeia, &c. The intermediate strata be- 
 tween the second and third limestones consists chiefly of sbale and 
 sandstone. The third and highest limestone exposed in this section is 
 five feet thick, surmounted by calcareous shales and beds of sandstone. 
 
 The three limestones, and the intermediate strata described in the 
 preceding section, strike inland from the coast between Aberlady Point 
 and Aberlady, through Gosford Park to Harelaw and Longniddry 
 Station, where the two lowest beds of limestone have been extensively 
 quarried. The fossils obtained from this quarry are Productus 
 giganteus, P. semireticulatus, P. longispince, Orthis resupinata, 
 Lithostrotion junceum. 
 
 From Harelaw and Longniddry the same beds strike nearly due 
 south by Landridge, Elvington, and Trabroun to the Jerusalem Lime- 
 works near Samuelston, at all of which places the two lower beds have 
 been formerly worked, and more recently near Elvington to supply the 
 iron furnaces at Gladmuir. Between Longniddry and Samuelston the 
 limestones have a general dip to the west, at an angle of about 5. 
 
 From this point the strike of the limestones takes a south-west direc- 
 tion along the valley of the Tyne to Salton Hnll. The two lowest beds, 
 however, cross the river Tyne at Herdmaston, and the inclination of 
 the strata being nearly the same as the surface of the ground, which 
 rises towards the south-east, extend for about two miles in that direc- 
 tion, the lowest bed of the series cropping out about half a mile to the 
 
CARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONE. 55 
 
 south of East Salton. The second bed does not continue so far, but 
 curves round by Middle Mains to the river Tyne, at Spilmersford, near 
 Salton Hall. It has been extensively quarried at both these places, 
 and is surmounted by a much greater thickness of calcareous shale or 
 " bands " than on the coast at Aberlady. The thin seam of coal seen 
 on the coast is also said to underlie the limestone here. 
 
 From Salton Hall the same strata continue without interruption, and 
 with a gentle rise to the south-east, to the Tyne at Fathead and 
 Crichton in the county of Edinburgh. It is difficult to identify the 
 individual beds here with those on the coast at Aberlady, for the strata 
 undergo a considerable change, both the limestones and the " bands " 
 which overlie them attaining a much greater thickness. The limestone, 
 however, which is quarried at Little Kinchie, Lampland, and Peaston, is 
 most probably the second bed, or the same as at Spilmersford. That 
 which is quarried at the Magazine and Hope quarries is probably the 
 third or highest bed of the group, although of much greater thick- 
 ness than at Aberlady Point, 
 
 About half a mile to the south-east of the quarries last mentioned 
 the two lowest beds have been formerly wrought, and from their dis- 
 turbed and broken state arc worth noticing. That at Marl Law, near 
 Whitburgh Mains, has been quarried to a depth of about 40 feet, and 
 consists of angular blocks of limestone of all sizes imbedded in an 
 argillo-calcareous matrix not far removed from their original beds. 
 
 An outlier of the Carboniferous Limestone, probably the lowest bed 
 of this group, occurs at Kidlaw, about three miles to the south-east of 
 the village of East Salton. It is here brought against the Lower 
 Silurian rocks by the large fault which ranges along the northern flanks 
 of the Lammermuir Hills, to which is probably due the disturbed and 
 contorted appearance of the limestone as seen in the quarry. This 
 outlier has been hitherto supposed to belong to the Lower Carboniferous 
 Series, and to be the equivalent of the Burdiehouse limestone of Mid- 
 Lothian, which, as already stated, is represented in this district by the 
 limestone quarried at Sunny side, near Traprain Law. 
 
 Another outlier of the lowest bed of limestone of this group occurs 
 in the grounds of Lennoxlove, about a mile to the south of the town of 
 Haddingtou, and about three miles to the east of the main outcrop of 
 this bed at the Jerusalem limeworks near Samuelston. This outlier, 
 which was formerly extensively quarried, occupies the crest of rising 
 ground close to the house at Lennoxlove. It is about a quarter of a 
 mile wide and half a mile long, and its isolated position here is not due 
 to any fault, but simply to the denudation of the main beds which 
 formerly extended to this point. 
 
 Lower Limestone Group on the Coast near Dunbar. The same 
 limestones which have just been described as bounding the East 
 Lothian coal-field on its eastern outcrop, also occur on the coast near 
 Dunbar. They are here in seven distinct beds, inter stratified with 
 sandstones, shales, and fireclay, some of which, together with the thin 
 seam of coal which underlies the main bed, can be identified with those 
 on the coast at Aberlady Point. The whole of the beds being clearly 
 exposed on the shore between Skateraw and Catcraig when the tide 
 is out, and also inland in a cutting on the North British Railway at 
 East Barnes, it is here that the lower group of limestones, and their 
 fossil contents, can be best studied.* 
 
 * These limestones were mapped in detail by Professor Ramsay, when he first 
 commenced the Geological Survey of Scotland in East Lothian. 
 
56 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 The following Section shows the succession of the limestones and 
 intermediate strata at Skateraw : 
 
 a. Limestone. 
 
 I. Sandstone and shale. 
 
 c. Limestone. 
 
 d. Sandstone and shale. 
 
 e. Limestone. 
 
 f. Seam of coal, and fireclay under. 
 
 g. Shale. 
 
 h. Limestone, 
 i. Shale. 
 Tc. Limestone. 
 
 The three lowest limestones, e, /*, k, in this section crop out on the shore 
 at Longcraig about half a mile to the south-east of Skateraw Harbour. 
 They are separated by thin beds of shale, the whole representing the 
 lowest bed at Aberlady Point. The shales and sandstones which lie 
 above are about 15 feet thick, and are succeeded by the thin bed of 
 limestone which is separated from the main bed or Skateraw limestone 
 by a parting of fire clay, and a seam of coal. This coal is about five 
 inches thick mixed with shale, and immediately underlies the limestone. 
 From its position it is no doubt the same coal which occurs beneath 
 the second bed of limestone in the Aberlady section. 
 
 The Skateraw Limestone, i, is 12 feet thick. Although numbered the 
 third limestone in this section, it is the equivalent of the second limestone 
 at Aberlady Point. It is succeeded by a series of beds of sandstone and 
 shale which crop out in the small bay between Skateraw Harbour and 
 Chapel Point. The fourth or Chapel Point Limestone is six feet thick, 
 and is the equivalent of the third limestone at Aberlady. The 
 strata which lie above consist principally of sandstone and shale 
 containing Stigmaria. The fifth limestone in this section is four feet 
 thick. It is an impure limestone of a hard flinty character, and on the 
 surface of its bed at low water may be seen numerous impressions of 
 Cauda galli. 
 
 By referring to the Geological Survey Map it will be seen that the 
 whole of the strata described in the preceding section are truncated by 
 the sea on the east, while to the westward the beds between the lowest 
 limestone at Lougcraig and the Skateraw Limestone strike inland for a 
 distance of two miles to Dryburn, near Thurston, where they are 
 brought against the coarse conglomerate beds of the Old Red Sandstone 
 by a large fault.* The Skateraw or third limestone does not extend 
 as far as the fault, but curves round gradually to Oxwell Mains and 
 East Barns, where, together with the lowest beds of the group, it is 
 exposed in a cutting on the North British Railway. The section of 
 the limestones exhibited here is confined within a distance of a few 
 yards, the strata being in a perfectly vertical position. From this 
 point they strike northward to the coast at Catcraig, where the entire 
 section of the limestones seen at Skateraw is again repeated in the 
 same order of superposition. 
 
 Two small faults intersect these strata at Catcraig, running in an 
 east and west direction, both having a downthrow on the north side ; 
 and in proceeding along the coast from Catcraig towards Dunbar we cross 
 another very considerable fault throwing down the strata in the same 
 direction, and running parallel with those at Catcraig. The greenstone 
 dyke at the point called Millstone Neuk on the map is in this line of 
 
 * This large fault, and also another important one, which ranges from the coast 
 near Dunbar along the northern flank of the Lammermuir Hills, were discovered and 
 laid down by Professor Ramsay. 
 
.EAST LOTHIAN COAL-FIELD. 
 
 57 
 
 dislocation, and is probably contemporaneous with it. A small vein 
 of galena occurs at thr junction of the trap and the limestones, speci- 
 mens of which are found on the coast. 
 
 On the north side of this greenstone dyke we find the strata dipping 
 due north, and between it and Jamie's Den the three highest lime- 
 stones given in the Skateraw section are crossed in succession ; and 
 further on towards Dunbar we have higher beds consisting of sandstones 
 and shales, mixed with coal and ironstone, and a thin calcareous bed 
 containing encrinites. These higher beds are probably the commence- 
 ment of that portion of the Carboniferous Limestone series which 
 contain the workable seams of coal of the East Lothian Coalfield. 
 These strata here dip out to sea, and striking westward parallel to the 
 shore are suddenly cut off by the large fault at Broxmouth, seen on the 
 coast opposite that place, and which brings in the Lower Carboniferous 
 and Old Red Sandstone formations on the opposite side. 
 
 In comparing this section of the Lower Limestone group, as displayed 
 on the coast at Catcraig and Skateraw, with that which bounds the 
 East Lothian Coalfield, we find that the calcareous beds are more 
 numerous, and, on the whole, of greater thickness. 
 
 Fig. 15. Vertical Section of 
 the East Lothian Coalfield. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE EAST LOTHIAN COALFIELD. 
 
 , L/Vi-J 
 
 The area of this coalfield contained in the Geological Survey Map, 
 sheet 33, is about 30 square miles, and, as already stated, the strata of 
 which it is composed belong wholly to the Carboniferous Limestone 
 series, the seams of coal and ironstone which are wrought in it being 
 the equivalents of the Edge Coals of Mid Lothian, some of which can 
 be individually identified. 
 
 In the description of that coalfield, 
 the Carboniferous Limestone series, 
 and the coals in connexion with it, are 
 there shown to rise to the surface along 
 the west side of the anticlinal between 
 the Roman Camp and the sea at Pres- 
 tonpans, and bending over the summit 
 of the ridge to dip to the east, forming 
 the broad but much shallower basin of 
 East Lothian. The whole of this eastern 
 trough or basin is not included in the 
 Map, Sheet 33, of which this memoir is 
 a description, and in describing the 
 details of the coalfield reference will be 
 made to that portion of it contained in 
 the adjoining Map, Sheet 32. The 
 accompanying vertical section, Fig. 15, 
 gives the names and relative position 
 of the workable seams of coal and 
 ironstone. 
 
 The " Hauchielin " Coal. This coal 
 is the lowest known coal in the basin, 
 and its position is about 40 feet above 
 the lower limestones. It is, however, 
 not continuous as a workable seam, 
 and is only known at Pathhead and Preston Hall at the southern 
 
 Great Seam. 
 
 Splint Coal. 
 
 Parrot do. 
 
 " Tnree foot " CoaL 
 
 Four-foot Coal. 
 
 Coal. 
 Coal. 
 
 Five-foot Coal. 
 
 Black Band Ironstone. 
 Panwood Coal. 
 
 Splint and Rough Coals. 
 
 Lower Limestones. 
 
58 GEOLOGY OP EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 it? ouTjr t o 1 ft.om e Vo al:fielCl> ^^ ** was formerl 7 wrought. 
 
 ^oTs at -fr d *K Pathhead > and bj^dS^lS abo^ Ihe fime- 
 stones, it has been proved to be the same as the "Parrot" coal of 
 Kdgehead, Arniston, and Newbattle, but the - Parrot "which makes 
 
 Section from the Hauchielin or Parrot Coal down to the Lower 
 Limestones near Ford. 
 
 Shale - . % 
 
 Hauchielin f Coal (hard) - 
 
 or 1 Coal(" Parrot") - 
 Parrot Coal. (. Goal (dross) - ... 
 
 35 feet.- 
 
 Faikes 
 
 White sandstone 
 
 Soft parting 
 
 Sandstone and shale 
 
 Sandstone 
 
 Shale (blaes) - 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 5 5 
 
 3 
 9 1 
 
 12 10 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 Limestone _ 
 
 Splint and Rough " Coals. This seam has been lon ff and exten 
 L^^J^H^ at S*-; ^encaitland, ggSSSS 
 
 and 
 
 =.S t 
 
 .r 
 
 entieot the coal-field, although it has never been proved, it would 
 probably be found about 300 feet below the Great Seam 1 1 i7well 
 known to be the equivalent of the Kailblades," or little splint ^nd 
 
 'Tt P^n to r tr' N ^ b ^ tle ' and C Wden -^ theMid-Lot^an ba^ n 
 At Penston and Pencaitland, where the splint and rou-h coal has 
 been wrought most extensively, the section of the two seam T an d the^r 
 intermediate strata is the following : 
 
 Section of the Splint and Rough Coal at Penston. 
 
 Splint Coal - | t- A ' 
 
 fGrey fakes - . . I Q 9 
 
 Sandstone . 9 AI 
 
 1& feet 3f in.^ Fakes and shale (blaes) ' * T ? 2 
 
 Sandstone - X L 
 
 LDaugh ... I ll 
 
 Goal (rough) .^ . J j| 
 
 20 6i 
 
 The outcrop of these coals (which are laid down as one seam unon 
 the map) commences on the shore at Seton Sands, and strikes inland 
 to the greenstone dyke at Cantyhall. On the south side of this dyke they 
 have not been proved for the distance of nearly a mile, although some 
 bores have been put down for that purpose. It is possible that the 
 faults which have been proved in working the higher seams to the west 
 
EAST LOTHIAN COAL-FIELD. 59 
 
 at St. Germain's affect these coals also, and interfere with their regular 
 course here. The next point they are met with is between Hoprig and 
 Hoprig Mains, and from thence they may be traced by means of the old 
 crop workings passing between Gladsmuir and Penston to the River 
 Tyne at Wester Pencaitland, where they can be seen in a quarry close to 
 the village. Between Wester Pencaitland and Preston Hall their course 
 is interrupted by numerous faults at Fountainhall and Ormiston, most 
 of which traverse the strata at right angles to the strike of the beds. 
 
 " Panwood " Coal. This is an inferior seam, and is not much 
 wrought. It was, however, worked formerly to some extent at 
 Penston, Fountainhall, and Ormiston. It is 1 foot 6 inches thick 
 at the r former place, and its position as shown on the vertical section, 
 fig. 15, is 72 feet above the splint and rough coal last described. 
 
 Black Band Ironstone. In connexion with the Panwood coal there 
 is a seam of ironstone which has been recently extensively wrought at 
 Penston. It is 14 inches thick there, and lies about 15 feet above the 
 coal, as shown by the following section : 
 
 Section of B. B. Ironstone and Panwood Coal at Penstone. 
 
 ft, in. 
 
 B. B.. Ironstone 12 
 
 Grey fakes - 08 
 
 Fakes and blaes (shale) - - - 10| 
 
 Coal 7| 
 
 Grey fakes 5 11 
 
 Blaes 1 7i 
 
 Ironstone band - - - - - 4 
 
 Daugh - - 24 
 
 Blaes 7i 
 
 Grey fakes 13 
 
 Sandstone 09 
 
 Fakes and fireclay - - - - 1 11 
 
 Daugh 
 
 Foul Coal (Panwood) - - - - 1 6| 
 
 This band of ironstone has also been proved at Ormiston and 
 Fountainhall, where it is found in connexion with the same coal. 
 
 " Five-foot " Coal.- This seam has been proved at Elphinstone 
 Colliery, near Tranent, in the centre of the basin, and also near 
 Prestongrange in the adjoining sheet 32. The outcrop of this coal has 
 not been proved over any considerable area, and in consequence it has 
 not been possible to lay it down on the map. The great accumulation 
 of drift in the valley of the Tyne also renders it next to impossible to 
 ascertain over what area it extends. Its distance above the Panwood 
 coal has not been accurately determined, no boring having been made 
 through the intervening strata. 
 
 At Elphinstone where the "five feet" coal is 3 feet 10 inches thick, 
 they have bored below 124 feet without reaching the Panwood, and 
 they passed through three thin seams which cannot be identified ; 
 although it is possible that the lowest may represent the thin seam of 
 coal in connexion with the black-band ironstone in the Penston 
 section. 
 
 " Four-foot " Coal. This is the next workable seam, and lies 118 feet 
 above the last coal at Elphinstone. It is 3 feet 8J inches thick there. 
 The outcrop of this coal is very imperfectly known, as it has only been 
 worked at the " crop" at St. Germain's about two miles north-east of 
 Tranent. It is here 4 feet 1 1 inches thick. 
 
 " Three-foot" Coal. This seam has also been proved at St. Ger- 
 main's, where it is said to be from 2 feet to 3 feet thick, and to lie 
 
60 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 about 9 feet above the four-feet coal. In a pit near Tranent Mains 
 its thickness was proved to be 2 feet 6 inches, and the distance between 
 it and the " four-feet " coal 9 feet, of which 1 foot was fireclay on which 
 it rested, the rest of the strata being sandstone and shale. In the 
 present working pit at Elphinstone Colliery it was found to be only 
 1 foot 8 inches thick, and to be separated from the four feet coal by 
 23 feet 6 inches of strata, which included a thin seam of coal 4 inches 
 thick. 
 
 The outcrop of the " three-feet " coal is also very imperfectly known, 
 for the same reason already given in describing the previous seams, the 
 only place where it has been actually proved being at St. Germain's. 
 
 Splint and Parrot Coals. These two seams being only separated 
 by a few feet of strata may be taken together. The outcrop of the 
 Splint coal has only been proved very imperfectly, and that only at its 
 southern termination. By reference to the map this coal is represented 
 by a dotted line, commencing at the edge of the map at Elphinstone 
 Tower, where it has been proved at the surface, and running along the 
 north side of Cousland Burn for about a mile, and then bending to the 
 north-east, passing to the west of North Mains to Buxley. At this 
 last place its- outcrop was proved in a bore which was put down at the 
 cross roads, the old "waste" being penetrated at the depth of about 
 12 feet, of which 4 feet Was "drift." Between Buxley and the coast its 
 eastern crop has not been proved. At Elphinstone Tower the splint 
 coal was found to be 4 feet thick, and the Parrot seam 1 foot, the latter 
 being separated from the former by only 2 feet of strata, the distance 
 between the bottom of the Parrot coal and the " Three-feet " coal which 
 lies below it being 60 feet. At the present pit at Elphinstone the 
 Parrot coal is only separated from the same coal by 6 feet 6 inches of 
 strata, whereas the thickness between the Parrot and Splint coals has 
 increased to 7 feet 3 inches. The following is the section of these 
 coals at this pit taken from the surface : 
 
 ft. in. 
 
 Strata - - - - 72 
 
 Splint Goal - - - 4 10 
 
 Strata - 7 3 
 
 Parrot and " Rough" Coal 1 8 
 
 Strata ... 6 6 
 
 Three-foot Coal - 1 8 
 
 In a pit near Tranent Mains the following was found to be the thick- 
 ness of these coals and the strata which separate them : 
 
 ft. in. 
 
 Splint Coal ... 4 
 
 Fireclay - 1 
 
 Sandstone and shale - 16 4 
 
 Parrot Coal 1 8 
 
 Strata - - - - 34 3 
 
 Three Feet Coal - 2 6 
 
 The " Great Seam" This coal, as already stated, is the highest 
 workable seam in the East Lothian coal-field, and in point of thick- 
 ness is the most important, although from its position in the series it 
 occupies a more limited area than those which lie below it. It is the 
 same coal known as the " Great Seam " in the " Edge " coals of the 
 Mid-Lothian basin, and it can be traced continuously without any break 
 from the eastern outcrop of that coal-field at Carberry and Wallyford 
 into Preston Grange colliery, and from thence to Prestonpans and 
 Preston Links colliery, where it bends round the northern end of the 
 Roman Camp anticlinal axis, which separates the basins of Mid-Lothian 
 
EAST LOTHIAN COAL-FIELD. 61 
 
 and East Lothian. This wil be seen by reference to the maps 32 and 
 33, where the strata, are shorrn by the arrows to dip to the N.W. and 
 N. at Preston Grange, and on the west side of Prestonpans, and to N. 
 and N.E at Preston Links Colliery, where the Great Seam was formerly 
 wrought below the sea. 
 
 Between Preston Links and the Greenstone dyke which intersects 
 the coal-field south of Prestonpans, the outcrop of the Great Seam has 
 not been correctly ascertained, and its probable outcrop is represented 
 on the map by a dotted line. It is known, however, to outcrop imme- 
 diately north of the town to Tranent, where it has a slight dip to the 
 east and south-east. From Tranent it can be traced with tolerable 
 accuracy through Birsley and Myles^to near Elphinstone Tower. At 
 this latter place, in a small plantation on the side of the road between 
 Elphinstone and Elphinstone Tower, its outcrop is seen in some old 
 surface workings. From this point it bends round the south side of 
 the village of Elphinstone, where it abuts against an east and west 
 fault, and does not crop to the surface for half a mile. Beyond this 
 fault it has been proved between Cinderhall and Buxley, and its outcrop, 
 as laid down on the map, is very nearly correct. About half a mile 
 north-east of Buxley the strata are thrown down by a fault, a down- 
 throw to the N.E. of 16 fathoms, and about half a mile further on 
 there is an upcast fault to the south-east of the same amount, the 
 Great Seam being thrown down in the form of a trough between them. 
 Beyond these faults we again find the same coal coming to the surface 
 about half a mile to the east of BHndwalls, from which place its out- 
 crop can be traced to near the Garnet Pit, St. Germain's Colliery, 
 which is seven fathoms to this coal. At this colliery the strata are 
 traversed by three parallel faults, two of which are of considerable 
 magnitude. They run in an east and west direction, and the first 
 throws down the strata (including the Great Seam) to the north 20 
 fathoms, and the outcrop of this coal is shifted about half a mile to the 
 east in the direction of St. Germain's. The second fault only dislocates 
 the strata 6 feet ; but the third is an upthrow, on the north, of 
 26 fathoms, and the outcrop of the Great Seam is shifted to the west, 
 being only seven fathoms deep, near Seton Bridge. Between this 
 place and Morton cottage, close to the shore, there are indications of 
 some old crop workings, and these are supposed to have been on the 
 Great Seam. The old pits just above high-water mark between Port- 
 seton and Morton cottage are also believed to have been on the same 
 coal, but on the north side of the fault which runs nearly parallel with 
 the shore at Portseton, which is a downthrow to the north ; the amount 
 of the throw is not known. 
 
 The Great Seam is generally from seven feet to eight feet in thickness 
 in the East Lothian basin, and occupying, as it does, only a limited 
 area, the principal portion of it has been already wrought out. 
 
 The Upper Limestone Group and Strata above the Great Seam. 
 Two of the thin upper limestones only of the Carboniferous Limestone 
 series are known to be present in the East Lothian coal-field. They 
 are seen on the shore at Portseton between high and low water mark, 
 and are most probably the same as Nos. 4 and 5 Limestones in the 
 section of the Edinburgh coal-field. They dip to the east at a high 
 angle, and strike inland till they are thrown up by the Portseton fault, 
 but they are not known for certain to exist in the centre of the trough 
 inland at Tranent/^no limestone having been met with in any of the pits. 
 
 The limestones seen on the coast at Portseton, and the strata which 
 lie above them, consisting of sandstones and shales, with one or two 
 beds of clay-band ironstone, form a narrow trough or basin, the strata 
 
62 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 rising again to the west at Cockensie. The two beds of limestone, 
 however, are not seen again, as the continuation of the section is 
 covered by the sea. There is, however, very little doubt that they 
 would be found in their proper position if the same dip continues, and 
 that after rising to the west they bend round the northern prolongation 
 of the Roman camp anticlinal axis which separates the Mid-Lothian 
 and East Lothian coal-fields, and join the same limestones which crop 
 out on the shore a little to the west of Prestonpans, where they dip to 
 the west and north-west. 
 
 The following fossils have been collected from these beds at Port- 
 seton : Large Encrinites,, Poteriocrinus, Productus giganteus, P. Ion- 
 gipsina, Chonetes. These occur in the lowest bed there. The 
 following have been found in the higher bed: Cyathophyllum>Produc- 
 tus giganteus. 
 
 H. H. HOWELL. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 DRIFT, AND SUPERFICIAL DEPOSITS. 
 
 The area of Sheet 33 continuous with those of Edinburgh and 
 Berwick, presents the same features of ground, as might be expected 
 from their similarity in geological structure. The Memoirs descriptive 
 of the adjacent counties have already discussed the period and amount 
 of denudation undergone by these counties. It will, therefore, be 
 sufficient to state the results arrived at, since they apply without modi- 
 fication to the county of Haddingfcon. It has been shown that the 
 denudation has taken place at very different ages prior to the deposit of 
 the Old Red Sandstone which rests on the upturned and worn edges of 
 the Silurian rocks ; the sandstone has itself undergone great denudation, 
 as evidenced by the fragments of that formation still left at various 
 heights among the Silurian hills, and pointing to a greater former extent 
 than it now has. The Carboniferous rocks, which must formerly have 
 covered the greater part of the area, are now, for the most part, bounded 
 by faults on whose upper side the younger rock has been entirely 
 removed. Changes so great must have required a correspondingly long 
 period of time for their completion, and were probably in great part 
 effected before the glacial period during which the county underwent 
 the last process of abrasion, and assumed, in detail at least, the aspect it 
 now presents. For the conclusion arrived at by examination of other 
 districts, namely, that the main features of the surface were of pre-glacial 
 or at least of early glacial age, is supported by the facts observed in this 
 district. These are, 1st, the greater thickness of the Boulder Clay in the 
 hollows of the surface, and its thinness over the intervening ridges. 2nd, 
 the presence of that deposit in the larger inner valleys down to and 
 below the level of the present streams, which have there fore re-excavated 
 their channels in the line of pre-existing valleys. 3rd, the occurrence 
 of deep and wide ravines in the solid rock, so completely filled with 
 Boulder Clay that their existence could not be detected on the surface 
 and is only revealed by coast sections, as at Little Tantallon Bay, and 
 in the ash cliffs west of Duubar, or as at the village of Stenton by 
 quarrying. Probably many such minor hollows, effaced by the deposits, 
 may yet be found, but their presence in no way affects the proposition 
 that the main features of the ground are not younger, and may pro- 
 bably be much older than the period of general glaciation. 4th, two 
 sections, one on the Dye Water below Longforrnacus, the other on the 
 Whiteadder above St. Agnes, Cranshaws, confirm this probability by 
 
DRIFT, AND SUPERFICIAL DEPOSITS. 63 
 
 showing the old alluvium of these valleys covered over by Boulder 
 Clay, through which the streams returning to their old courses have 
 again cut. 
 
 Section on Dye Water, below Longformacus.* 
 
 feet. 
 
 Boulder Clay, red stiff, charged with scratched stones, mostly of Silu- 
 rian greywacke and shale, with pieces of Priestlaw granite, about 20 
 
 Band of red gravel, clean, well rolled with nests and lenticular layers 
 of red sand, the whole being very like river-alluvium, thickness 
 varies up to - - 4 
 
 Old Bed Conglomerate. 
 
 Section on Whiteadder Water, above St. Agnes, Cranshaws* 
 
 feet. 
 
 Reasserted sandy and gravelly bed - - 2 or 3 
 
 Boulder Clay - - 15 or 18 
 
 Gravel - - - - -"I 
 
 Fine green and red clay - - > visible depth about 6 
 
 Coarse gravel - 
 
 (Bottom of section concealed under bed of stream.) 
 
 A glance at the one-inch map of the county shows that the minor 
 inequalities of the low grounds run in lines approximately parallel and 
 varying from north-east to E. by N. The persistence of their courses 
 over so large a surface indicates a common origin, and taken in con- 
 nexion with the general bearings of the glacial striae seen at different 
 points leads us to assign them to ice action. In connexion with these 
 glacial hollows fall to be considered certain valleys near the base of the 
 hills, which seem to belong to a system different from that of the present 
 day. .The flat green valley between Deuchrie and Rammer Woods is 
 bounded by steep declivities, covered with low brushwood. Towards 
 the east it rises slightly, and the mound then formed separates it from 
 Deuchrie Valley, towards which it slopes very gradually, and is traversed 
 in this direction by only a tiny thread of water oozing out of the mossy 
 soil. Its eastern end is crossed by a brook, descending from Halls 
 Edge and turning sharply down the rocky ravine of Cauld Burn to join 
 Spott Water. The western end opens on a wide alluvial hollow, on 
 which, facing the centre of the valley, stands a coarse gravel ridge. 
 Down this hollow a stream, descending from Lothian Edge, at right 
 angles to Rammer Cleugh, passes into Sanchet Burn. The slopes bound- 
 ing this dry ravine descend from a platform of rOck, which, broken only 
 by burn channels, stretches east towards Halls and is covered by 
 Boulder Clay, supporting a thick mass of gravel. In a hollow parallel 
 to this, about a mile north-west, Pressmennan Loch lies, bounded by 
 steep rocky banks and closed in at either end by rock. The eastern 
 outflow, a small rivulet, passes down a wide furrow, over Boulder 
 Clay, to join Spott Burn, a little below Cauld Burn. A similar furrow, 
 but containing no stream, leads to the summit of the steep banks 
 bounding Sanchet Burn. Again, Thurston Burn is formed by streams 
 entering its precipitous ravine at right angles and leaving dry a valley 
 a mile in length, which is the direct continuation of the eastern 
 ravine.f At the western end of this dry cleugh a hill burn forms a 
 Z-shaped curve so as to pass north into Spott Burn. Again, Oldham- 
 stocks Burn joins obliquely a deep ravine, which conducts it seaward. 
 
 * From Mr. Geikie's notes. 
 
 f In the grounds of Balgonie near North Berwick a dry valley runs like a moat 
 through the traps following the outcrop of a greenstone, and wholly without refer- 
 ence to any possible stream course under the present lie of the ground. 
 
64 GEOLOGY OP EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 Westward from the point where it flows in, the valley passes for a mile, 
 and across this extremity Aikengall Burn flows northward. In all these 
 cases the course of the dry valleys is the same, north-eastward, and is, 
 therefore, at right angles to the present stream-courses. It is difficult 
 to explain their formation by means of the small brooks which flow in 
 their neighbourhood, and their form is not that which would result from 
 glacial erosion. There are many such valleys, some of which are 
 mentioned in the Berwickshire Memoir ; the same explanation does not, 
 however, remove the difficulties in each case ; their solution must, 
 therefore, wait the results of more extended inquiry. 
 
 Dressed Surfaces. It has been already said that the minor 
 inequalities of the district run in lines nearly parallel, and that their 
 direction near the hills is slightly more northerly than seaward. It 
 must be added that to the east of a line joining the most northerly 
 point of Lothian Edge and Tynemouth the trend of the ridges 
 becomes more easterly and even a few degrees south of east, thus fol- 
 lowing in a general way the south-easterly swing of the higher Silurian 
 grounds. The glacial strias, where observed, follow precisely the same 
 rule. West of the above-mentioned line the invariable direction is E. to 
 N. (one bearing E. 25 N. at Markle points to the slope of a hill round 
 whose flank the lower part of the ice-stream would have to turn, for on 
 the opposite side of the hill the usual direction is resumed). At Cat- 
 craig Quarry, east of Dunbar, the bearings are E. 15 S.; in the neigh- 
 bourhood of St. Abb's Head E. 25 S. The rocks on this part of the 
 coast, as well as the majority of those inland, are very unfavourable for 
 the preservation of these markings. 
 
 At Thorntonloch Boulder Clay is exposed between tide marks, and 
 blocks washed out of it strew the shore for some distance. At one 
 point, over a space of about 40 square yards, the blocks embedded in the 
 clay have their surfaces on the same plane ; and overriding the irregular 
 striations, which are deeply impressed, another series of parallel grooves 
 runs in a direction uniform for every stone over the space, viz., E. 10 S. 
 The blocks seem to have first undergone the tumultuous scoring before 
 reaching their present position, and afterwards to have been subjected 
 to the friction which has converted them and the intervening Boulder 
 Clay into a striated pavement, now slowly wasting under sea action. 
 
 The superficial deposits are as in the adjacent counties : 
 
 Blown Sand. 
 
 Eiver Alluvium. Peat. Lacustrine Marls. 
 Eaised Beaches. 
 ? Surface Wash. 
 P. . f [Brick Earths. 
 
 unit i g ^ nd and Q. ravel j^ges (Kames) and Mounds, 
 beries. [ Boulder Clay or Tilh 
 
 Dressed Eock Surfaces. 
 
 Boulder Clay. In its essential characters the Till of this area 
 differs in no way from that of other districts. It is a stiff, dry clay, 
 charged with rock fragments, more or less rounded and smoothed, and 
 generally of small size, the larger blocks being more commonly found 
 on than in the deposit. It is sandy or earthy, and varies in tenacity 
 according to the character of the rock whence it is derived. The 
 frequent changes in the formations bring into prominence the local 
 character of the deposit. Even at a distance the nature and limits of 
 the subjacent rock may be roughly affirmed from the rapid alterations of 
 colour on the surface. The fawn colour over Silurian rocks, the red- 
 dish tinge over the Old Red Sandstone, arc in strong contrast with the 
 
DRIFT, AND SUPERFICIAL DEPOSITS. 65 
 
 yellowish brown tint of clay derived from Carboniferous Sand or Lime- 
 stones. Stratification Js nowhere visible, for though nests of sand or 
 gravel, commonly lenticular, sometimes occur, the sections where they 
 are seen have the characteristic pell-mell distribution of their contents. 
 That reassortment has taken place to some extent at the surface is pro- 
 bable from the presence, especially over the seaward district, of a 
 lighter coloured clay, freer of pebbles and usually more sandy than the 
 darker earthier mass below. But the passage from the one to the 
 other is so gradual that they cannot be separated, the less so that the 
 actual difference between the two is not greater than frequently occurs 
 between adjacent portions of the true Boulder Clay lying on the same 
 horizontal plane. 
 
 Over the limestones of Skateraw a hard calcareous conglomerate in- 
 tervenes between the rock and the Boulder Clay. This seam, never 
 more than a few inches thick, appears at different points of the coast 
 section in the same locality. The stream-course, filled up with Boulder 
 Clay and exposed in a quarry close to Stenton village, shows a few 
 inches of " pan," or broken-up sandstone, lying between the rock and 
 the Till. With these exceptions the deposit everywhere rests directly 
 on the rock. 
 
 Surface Wash. On the high grounds the Boulder Clay lies only in 
 the hollows ; the flanks of the hills and the flattish moorlands are 
 usually bare of it. Between the heath and the rock, however, " there 
 " intervenes, on the higher parts of the Lammermuir range, a mass of 
 " rudely stratified rubbish, to which, in the progress of the survey, the 
 " provisional name of Surface Wash has been given till its true history 
 " is better understood. It lies along the ridge between the head of the 
 " Hopes Water and the Kilpallet Heights. It is usually a sandy clay or 
 " earth, more or less distinctly stratified, and containing pieces of grey- 
 " wacke and shale, often well striated. Though frequently different 
 " in character from the rocks immediately adjacent, these stones cannot 
 " have come from any great distance. The deposit is only a few feet 
 " in thickness. Perhaps it is to be regarded here as the wreck of 
 " the Boulder Clay, washed down and reassorted by rain, though 
 " the comparatively small number of the striated stones and the irre- 
 " gularity of the striation have sometimes suggested that this surface 
 " accumulation may be as old as the snowfields of the glacial period."* 
 It is a distinct deposit from the surface wash of Peeblesshire, whose 
 undoubted relation to the glaciers of that district depends upon other 
 evidence. 
 
 The total absence of erratics from the Haddingtonshire section of 
 the Lammermuir range deprives us of any evidence as to the probable 
 extent of submersion during the later part of the glacial period. A 
 block of carboniferous sandstone, found by one of us at the head of 
 Fassney Water, over 1,500 feet above the sea-level, might seem to 
 indicate a submersion to that extent. But besides the possibility of 
 its having reached its place with the Boulder Clay, no great weight 
 can be attached to this the only example of the kind which has been 
 observed. 
 
 Sands and Gravels. The series which overlies the Till in this area 
 connects those of sheets 32 and 34. The great masses which flank 
 the hills in the south-eastern parts of Edinburghshire thin away to 
 the N.E., and their place is taken by sporadic mounds seldom forming 
 a continuous sheet, and then only of small size. The sand and gravel 
 are usually intermingled, but as a rule the former is in greater quantity 
 
 * From Mr. Geikie's notes. 
 
66 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 seaward, the latter inland. It may be convenient to divide them into 
 three groups : 1st, the masses flanking the hills, and the isolated 
 mounds standing on the open ground north of them ; 2nd, the mounds 
 and ridges which have some relation to the watercourses ; 3rd, the 
 sheets bordering the sea. 
 
 1st. These masses lie on the same general level, as in the ground 
 between Carfrae and Halls, where the gravel occupies a platform 
 beneath which the streams flow in deep ravines. The absence of good 
 sections prevent any certainty as to their stratification ; so far as 
 seen, however, it does not appear to be very general. In form they 
 are irregular, their surface, however, sometimes disposed in ridges 
 parallel to the hill faces behind them. Eastwards they thin out and 
 are represented by isolated mounds similar to those which stand on the 
 open grounds commonly at a distance from any streams, and sometimes 
 having on their inland side rising ground, though of no great height. 
 Their limits are sharply defined and correspond with their circum- 
 ference, whereas the larger masses near the hills die out in gravelly 
 soil extending some distance from the main body. Stratification is 
 frequent among these mounds. In one there is great contortion of the 
 bedding, and a large irregularly pyramidal block of Boulder Clay is 
 wedged in among the disturbed layers. In another at Dunglass the 
 lower part of the mound has been denuded irregularly, and another set 
 of layers unconformably laid over its surface. It not unfrequently 
 happens that single gravel mounds occur among a series of ridges of 
 Boulder Clay, from which they are perfectly indistinguishable by mere 
 form. 
 
 2nd. The ridges and mounds in relation to existing watercourses are 
 principally those in the valley of the Tyne, and lie below the general 
 level of the country. Though their bases are overlapped by recent 
 alluvium they perhaps belong to the alluvial series. The gravel in 
 the deep hollow behind Tanderlane, a mile north of Garvald, cannot be 
 so regarded. The gravel ridge lies not far from the head of the hollow 
 which descends eastward from the plain, where, therefore, no stream of 
 sufficient size or strength to have accumulated so great a mass could 
 have originated in the present state of things. 
 
 Under this division may be mentioned the gravel mounds of Newbyth 
 which lie on the low watershed separating the short narrow valley 
 running seawards by Whitekirk from the long wide valley which opens 
 to the sea at Aberlady. A depression of 50 feet would convert into 
 an island the triangular piece of ground north of this line, but would 
 leave projecting gravel peaks between it and the mainland. Imperfect 
 terraces may be seen in the wider part of the valley about and below 
 the 25-foot level ; no other trace of the sea in the shape of raised beach 
 or gravel banks can be found. The whole surface is covered with 
 gluey clay containing few stones, over which sluggish streamlets have 
 laid down a thin muddy layer. In the narrow passage between the 
 two bays a straggling mass of gravel is heaped up, continuous east- 
 ward with the blown and other sands of Tyuinghame grounds, and 
 westward with those of Fortune. Previously to the last or 25-foot ele- 
 vation the sea would come to within a short distance of these kames 
 and mounds. As, however, they reach above the 100-foot contour line, 
 and as between these two heights the series is continuous, they are 
 rather to be looked on as the youngest members of the marine Drift 
 series formed while the country was rega ining its present level. 
 
 3rd. Sand-sheets bordering the coast and blown sand. On the 
 eastern and south-eastern sides of Musselburgh there is a great accumu- 
 lation of blown sand which attains its maximum on the north of 
 
DRIFT, AND SUPERFICIAL DEPOSITS. 67 
 
 Gullane Hill. The sea slope of that ridge as far as North Berwick is 
 deeply covered nearly to its summit with sand which conceals every- 
 thing* Near the shore its blown character is easily seen, but further 
 inland it is changed more than cultivation seems quite equal to explain, 
 passing into a brownish clayey sand. It has been mapped with the 
 gravel series, to which it probably in part belongs, the slow gradual 
 travelling of the loose sand under the influence of wind having tended 
 to obscure its character. The same may be said of the large area of 
 Tyninghame. There, however, the sand has not wholly covered up the 
 subjacent deposits, but is scattered in irregular islands separated by 
 intervals of Boulder Clay. 
 
 Brick Earth. Patches of this deposit are scattered over the county, 
 as at Broxmouth Park, among the gravels near the hills, where it is 
 sometimes covered by thin layers of gravel, at Waughton, east of New- 
 byth, and north-east of Prestonpans. The largest and most important 
 deposit is at Belhaven, where the surface is 15 feet above the sea level, 
 and the excavations descend below it. On the finely laminated clay 
 a new species'of starfish, Ophiolepis gracilis, Allm., was found two years 
 ago, and described by Professor Allman.* A block of clay from the pits 
 at the mouth of the Eden near St. Andrew's, Fifeshire, deposited in the 
 museum of that town, shows several specimens of the same species. 
 The associated shells were not in a state which admitted of identification. | 
 It is remarkable that both localities; are estuarine, at least at the mouths 
 of large streams ; that both deposits approach very closely to the 
 present sea level ; that the same species occurs in both places, though 
 not yet found at any intermediate point ; that it belongs to a genus 
 peculiarly brittle, and that notwithstanding, the connexion of the rays 
 with the disc is perfect in all the specimens seen at either locality. 
 
 Peat. Drainage and cultivation are steadily diminishing the surface 
 covered by peat, even among the hills. Traces of its former presence 
 may be found in situations similar to those in which brick earths occur, 
 namely, in the hollows of the gravel series, and on the alluvial flats 
 bordering the shore. 
 
 Marls. Among the heaps of blown sand on the north side of Peffer 
 Burn, opposite Aberlady, there is a pool marked Marl Loch on the 
 map. Near it may be found fragments of a calcareous tufa, destitute of 
 shells ; but as the pool was full of water, and as similar fragments were 
 found among the sand farther up the hill, its source could not be 
 precisely ascertained. In a field on Broxmouth Estate, near Strand 
 House, the sediments of a former lake occur in the following order : 
 
 1st. Thin sandy soil containing beach shells (probably blown sand). 
 
 2nd. Peat, 2 to 10 inches in thickness. 
 
 3rd. Marl, white tenacious, consisting almost entirely of Lymncea 
 Planorbis, Pupa, and Cypris. It is divided by short seams of 
 sand and peat. 
 
 4th. At the wall next the sea a laminated clay underlies the marl; on 
 the south side, a layer of sand resting on red sandstone. 
 
 Raised Beaches. The 25 -foot terrace is very fragmentary. Portions 
 of it may be seen under the blown sand west of N. Berwick, and 
 on the low ground south-east of Seacliff Tower. But over this part of 
 the coast, it is concealed, if it exists, by blown sand ; while even in 
 the sheltered estuary east of Aberlady its absence has been already 
 .mentioned, and the obliteration in great part of the terrace at a 
 corresponding level. It is again seen on the shore running north from 
 
 * Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin. v. p. 101. 
 f Ann, Mag. Nat. History, 1864. 
 
 E 2 
 
68 
 
 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 Beil Burn at Belhaven, and at intervals fragments of it may be recog- 
 nized as far as the cliffs of Dunglass Shore. 
 
 Alluvium. The marine alluvium of Aberlady and at the mouth of 
 the Tyne, are the largest tracts met with. The widest haughs are 
 those of the Tyne where it flows through the Carboniferous rocks. 
 The other streams, having to cut their channels through solid unyielding 
 beds, have formed little alluvium, and that only in thin strips. Some 
 small lakes have formerly existed. No organic remains have been 
 obtained from their sediments. 
 
 JOHN YOUNG. 
 
 NOTE by Sir RODERICK I. MURCHISON, Bart. 
 
 A remarkable example of the accumulation of alluvia, shelly marl, 
 and peat is to be seen to the north of Balgone House, the seat of Sir 
 George Grant Suttie, Bart. There, a very narrow valley, ranging 
 from N.E. to S.W., under the cliffs of amygdaloidal greenstone known 
 as Heughs in the county, had a few years ago a surface covered by 
 peat and marsh, in desiccating which, to convert it into grass land, the 
 proprietor found, in sinking beneath the peat, a sheet of shelly marl, 
 composed entirely of Lymncece and mud, on which in one spot near the 
 south-eastern extremity, and under about 7 feet of peat, were found 
 human skulls, associated with a great quantity of bones of red deer, 
 wild boar, aboriginal oxen, horse, &c. &c. As these remains laid on 
 the shell marl, it is probable that they were thrown into an ancient 
 loch, which in the course of time became covered over with peat, which 
 in places had accumulated to a thickness of eight or nine feet. When 
 I visited the spot, a sinking had just been made by Sir G. Suttie to 
 receive a gasometer at the edge of this old loch, and the following 
 section was exposed in ascending order : 
 
 Fig. 16. Section of Superficial Deposits near Balgone House. 
 
 a. Finely laminated grey sand, 2 to 3 feet (water beneath). 
 
 b. Coarse glacial drift in the small blocks of rock foreign to the spot, 3 feet. 
 
 c. Shell marl with Lymnsea ; a few inches thick only on this side of the old loch, 
 but thickening towards the centre of the valley ; on this the bones and skulls rested. 
 
 d. Black peat with a few Lymnsese in its lower part only, 4 to 5 feet, but thickening 
 to 8 and 10 feet in the centre of the depression. 
 
 e. Modern debris of clay and fragments derived from the cliff. 
 
 x Cliff of augitic, amygdaloidal greenstone, forming one of the Balgone Heughs. 
 
69 
 
 It would seem from the facts, that when the narrow valley was occu- 
 pied by a lake in which Lymncete lived, human beings had a dwelling 
 near at its edge, and that the bones of the animals they slaughtered 
 were cast into the water. Professor Huxley, who examined the human 
 skulls, and bones arid jaws of the quadrupeds, perceived nothing 
 remarkable in them, though it is evident from the accumulation of peat 
 and soil above them that a very considerable period had elapsed 
 between their burial and the present day. In fact, the lake with its 
 LymncBfB was formed next in order after the glacial deposit, but at what 
 interval of time we have no means of judging. 
 
 ROD. I. MURCHISON. 
 
 LIST 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CHIEF WORKS DESCRIPTIVE OF THE GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN 
 A.ND NORTH PART OF BERWICKSHIRE. 
 
 Hutton, Theory of the Earth, vol. i. 454. 
 Playfair, Works, vol. iv. 78. 
 
 Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory, pp. 213, 328. 
 Hall, On Revolutions of the Earth's Surface; Trans. Roy. Soc. 
 
 Edin., vii. 84, 162. 
 Boue, Essai Geologique sur VEcosse. 
 Jamieson, On Geology of the Lothians ; Mem. Werner. Soc., ii. 616 
 
 and iii. 225. 
 Ogilby, On Granite and Igneous Rocks of East Lothian. Id. i. 126 
 
 and 469. 
 
 Milne, On Geology of Berwickshire ; Trans. High. Soc., vol. xii. 
 Maclaren, Geology of Fife and the Lothians. Edin. 1839. 
 Hay Cunningham, Geology of the Lothians ; Mem. Wer. Soc., vol. vii. 
 Stevenson, On Geology of Cockburn Law ; Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. 
 xvi. 33. ' 
 
 On Lammermuirs ; Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. vi. 478. 
 
APPENDIX ON THE FOSSILS. 
 
 By J. W. SALTER, A.L.S., late Palaeontologist to the 
 Geological Survey. 
 
 LOWER SILURIAN. 
 
 THE Lower Silurian rocks in this district are singularly barren of organic 
 remains, nor does their hard quartoze character afford much hope that 
 they will ever prove very fossiliferous. In the reddish and purple shales 
 of the Siccar Point, Professor Ramsay, Mr. Geikie, and myself found for 
 the first time in that locality Graptolithus priodon, and Mr. Gibbs, our 
 fossil collector, in afterwards searching there and in the hilly ground at 
 Ellemford on the Whiteadder, obtained a few additional specimens. The 
 following list includes all we have met with, and indicates the Llandeilo 
 and Caradoc formations. 
 
 Graptolithus priodon, Bronn (fig. 1.) 
 
 Localities, Ellemford on the Whiteadder below Longformacus, Siccar 
 Point, West Mains near Siccar Point. 
 
 Fig. 17. Graptolithus priodon, Bronn, Siccar Point. 
 
 Diplograpsus pristis, Hisinger, Siluria, 3rd edit, woodcuts 11 & 12, 
 figs. 4 & 14, pages 64 & 74. 
 
 Locality, Headshaw Burn near Carfrae Common, in black carbonaceous 
 shale. 
 
 Tracks of Annelides, large and small (fig. 2). 
 Locality, Siccar Point (Eev. T. Brown's Coll.). 
 
 Fig. 18. Nemertites. Track in sandstone of large Annelides. 
 Siccar Point. 
 
APPENDIX ON THE FOSSILSg 71 
 
 Fig. 19 Tracks of Crustacea, 
 Locality, Ellemford on theJWhiteadder. 
 
 These crustacean tracks consist of a double row on each side of roundish 
 impressions, partly confused with each other and with a central row. 
 They must have been made by an animal with at least four and probably 
 more pairs of feet. The central row is interrupted. 
 
 On the Dye "Water above Longformacus some obscure traces of fossils 
 were obtained, but the whole district of Lammermuir requires close search 
 by local geologists before the true geological succession of its strata can 
 be established. At present all that can be certainly affirmed is that the 
 rocks are Lower Silurian. Though the Graptolithus priodon is a Middle 
 and Upper Silurian species in England and Wales, it is plentiful at 
 Qrieston near Innerleithen on the Tweed in company with G. Sedgwickii 
 and other Lower Silurian fossils. At St. Abb's Head the Eev. T. Brown 
 has found some curious markings and traces, amongst them one which 
 appears much like the section of a sponge, but it is too obscure to figure. 
 
 OLD BED SANDSTONE. 
 
 No fossils were detected in any part of the Old Eed Sandstone shown or. 
 the present map. In Berwickshire, however, some of the characteristic 
 fish remains of the upper division were found by Mr. Geikie and Mr. Gibbs, 
 and also fragments of Pterygotus anglicus and plant remains, indicating the 
 lower member of the series.* The late Eev. Dr. Fleming informed 
 Mr. Geikie some years ago that he had found scales of Holoptychius in the 
 red sandstones of Siccar Point. 
 
 CAEBONIFEEOUS. 
 
 CALCIFEROTJS SANDSTONES. 
 
 The principal facts regarding the distribution of the organic remains in 
 the Carboniferous rocks were collected during an examination of the 
 ground in 1858 in company with the Local Director and Messrs. Howell 
 and Geikie. Mr. Gibbs both before and afterwards searched the ground, 
 and a considerable collection was made which is now partly in the Museum 
 of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, and partly in the Industrial Museum, 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 The lowest part of the Carboniferous series is seen to shade down into 
 the uppermost zone of the Old Eed Sandstone along the shore between 
 the Cove and Siccar Point. The bottom beds are red, and reddish or 
 yellowish grey sandstones, sometimes full of fossil plants, with fish remains 
 and obscure shells in a conglomeratic band. The plants belong to a small 
 number of species, the chief form being 
 
 * See Memoirs of the Geological Survey, Geology of Eastern Berwickshire 
 (sheet 34), Appendix. 
 
72 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 Lepldodendrotif(Qv Sagenaria) Veltheimianum, Goeppt. 
 
 Figs. 20 and 21. Lepidodendron (Sageaaria) Veltiieiinianum, Goeppt, 
 
 Both figures are from decorticated specimens, and fig. 20 from an old 
 one. The one (20) is from the Fife coast, the other (21) from the East 
 Lothian coast. 
 
 Sigillaria, stems of a large species. 
 
 Stigmaria (root of the Sigillaria), abundant. 
 
 Cycadites Caledonicus (Geology of Eastern Berwickshire, Mem. Geol. 
 Surv., p. 58). 
 
 Fig. 22. Cycadites Caledonicus, base of Lower Carboniferous, near 
 Cockburnspath. 
 
 This unique specimen has been des- 
 cribed in a former part of the Geological 
 Survey Memoirs (Geology of Eastern 
 Berwickshire, p. 58). It is now figured 
 for the first time. In comparing it with 
 any recent forms it is right to bear in 
 mind that the leaflets of Cycas can hardly 
 be said to have a contracted base : they 
 have, moreover, a prominent midrib, and 
 the leaflets are set on the rachis perfectly 
 straight. But in Zamia there is a very 
 decided contraction of the base, and in 
 Encephalartos, a South African ally of 
 Zamia, the obliquity of the leaflets is 
 considerable ; they face the base of the 
 leaf, and there is no midrib. In Macro- 
 zamia, an Australian genus, the obliquity 
 of the leaflets is also conspicuous, and 
 the base is contracted. It would appear, 
 therefore, that the fossil is more nearly 
 like Zamia and its allies than Cycas. 
 
 Myalina, in small patches, species obscure. 
 
 Gy r acanthus formosus, Ag., a fine specimen in intaglio still remains in 
 the cliff. 
 
 Rhizodus ? a large head plate. 
 
 The " under-clay " of these plant beds at the base of the Carboniferous 
 series is sandstone. The Sigillaria is remarkable for its size, and this is 
 
APPENDIX ON THE FOSSILS. 73 
 
 the more noteworthy from its position at the very bottom of the Car- 
 boniferous rocks, and from the fact that the genus does not occur in the 
 Old Bed Sandstone or Devonian group. The Lepidodendron (or Sagenaria) 
 Veltheimianum, was recognized by Professor G-einitz in a visit to this 
 country as the same plant which is so characteristic of the lower coal 
 measures of Saxony, and which according to his late resume is certainly 
 found in the upper Devonian formations (Hamilton and Catskill groups) 
 of North America. It is figured above, and I have added what appears to 
 me to be the old state of it from the Fife coast (fig. 20). 
 
 The fossils just enumerated were obtained from the bottom beds of the 
 calciferous sandstone on the shore to the south-east of Cockburnspath. 
 Higher in the series come the coal beds of Cockburnspath Cove, among 
 which Stigmaria was found in sandstone. In the small boat-cove soft 
 sandy and argillaceous beds occur with the following fossils : 
 
 Lepidodendron, distinct from L. Veltheimianum. 
 
 Cyclopteris, small species, bifid leaves ; the same occurs at Pittenweem. 
 
 Fig. 23. Small fronds of Cyclopteris ilabellata, Brongn., Cove shore. 
 
 Linear leaves of some (coniferous ?) plant with Spirorbis attached. 
 
 Avicula or Gervillia, in thin sandy layers with Cyclopteris. 
 
 Above the coal beds and their associated sandstones and shales comes 
 an impure limestone seen on the cliff behind Cove Harbour. Among 
 abundant annelide burrows and encrinite fragments the following shells 
 were found by Mr. Gibbs and myself: 
 
 Edmondia unioniformis, Phill. 
 
 Schizodus 
 
 all imperfect. 
 
 Pteronites j 
 
 Aviculopecten, a large species also found in Fife.* 
 
 Athyris ambigua, Sow., very plentiful. 
 
 Among the sandstones and shales that lie between the Cockburnspath 
 beds just referred to and the base of the Carboniferous Limestone near 
 Skateraw the remains of plants are in some places abundant. This inter- 
 val includes the thick white sandstones of the Burn and shore of Dunglass. 
 Carbonaceous streaks, with fragments of Stigmaria, Lepidodendron, and 
 other plants, are found on the ghore below Bilsdean, and in an impure 
 limestone on the shore, near the 34th milestone from Edinburgh, encrinites 
 and annelide burrows occur. In the Calciferous Sandstone series west of 
 Dunbar below the thick mass of volcanic ashes plant remains, especially 
 the stumps of trees (stigmaria), were observed to be common. 
 
 The equivalent in East Lothian of the Burdie House Limestone of 
 Edinburghshire lies imbedded in the heart of the volcanic series, and has 
 as yet yielded no fossils, though in some of the sandstones and shales that 
 are likewise interstratified in the same thick group igneous rocks, remains 
 of plants have been noted. Fragments of carbonized wood occur in the 
 ash of Dunbar and North Berwick.f No fossils have been collected by us 
 from the Calciferous Sandstone series to the south and south-west of 
 Haddington. 
 
 * It occurs there in the Encrinite-bed of Mr. Brown's paper, (Trans. Roy. Soc., 
 Edin., vol. xxii. p. 385,) a bed very like the Cockburnspath limestone. This species is 
 distinct from the allied A. (Pecten) semicostatus of Portlock. 
 
 t See supra, pp. 35 and 42. 
 
GEOLOGY Otf EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 CABBONIFEBOTJS LIMESTONE SERIES. 
 
 In two localities in the present map the lower or calcareous part of 
 this series is well shown. One of these lies along the coast between 
 Dunbar and Thorntonloch, the other extends from Aberlady Bay to near 
 Longniddry. Taking the Dunbar coast section as a typical one for this 
 part of the country we find it to contain fine limestones distinguishable 
 by their fossils. The lowest of these strata rests upon a hard sandstone 
 bed full of the impressions of the fossil seaweed Gauda-galli, and may be 
 called 
 
 No. 1 Limestone.* 
 
 It contains 
 
 Chcetetes, small species - Catcraig. 
 
 XXX Lithostrotion irregulare,^ McCoy - - do. 
 
 ,, junceumrf M. Edw. - do. 
 
 Spirifer trigonalis, Sow. , - . - do. 
 
 Producta longispina, Sow. - - do. 
 
 ,, punctata, Sow. - - do. 
 
 ,, spinulosa, Sow. - - do. 
 
 ,, pustulosa, Phill. - - do. 
 
 Orthis Michelini, Lev. - - ' _ : '- , do. 
 
 ,, resupinata, Sow. - - "I do. 
 
 Pinna costata, Phill. ? - - - do. 
 
 Skateraw. 
 do. 
 do. 
 do. 
 do. 
 
 Above this limestone at Catcraig lies a fireclay, between which and the 
 next limestone comes a dark calcareous shale, containing 
 
 Aviculopecten alternatus, McCoy 
 ribbed species 
 
 Spirifer trigonalis, Sow. 
 
 Orthis resupinata, Sow. 
 Lingula squamiformis, Phill. 
 
 Discina nitida, Phill. 
 
 Poteriocrinus, stems - 
 Archceocidaris, spines 
 
 Small fish spines - * 
 
 Catcraig. 
 do. 
 do. 
 do. 
 do. 
 do. 
 do. 
 do. 
 do. 
 do. 
 
 Skateraw. 
 
 do. 
 
 2nd (or Catcraig) Limestone. 
 
 XXX Lithostrotion junceum, M. Edw. 
 X X CyatJiophyllum, sp. 
 
 XXX Clysiophyllum turbwatwm, McCoy - 
 
 Platycrinus - - "?*;< I- 
 
 X X Poteriocrinus, large stems -*-' 
 X X Productus pustulosus, Phill. 
 XX ,, costatus, Sow. 'dosf' 
 
 - Catcraig. 
 do. 
 dn- do. 
 fcw do. 
 *s. do. 
 tf- do. 
 ****. do. 
 
 Skateraw. 
 do. 
 do. 
 do. 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 I do not know that the mode of reproduction of the coral Clysiophyllum 
 has yet been figured. It is, however, a common character in the family of 
 the Palaeozoic cup corals that the young buds take their rise from the sur- 
 face of the calyx. The central thin columella, against which the tabulae 
 abut, is well shown in specimens which are cut through the centre, but 
 not on those where the section goes through one side. J 
 
 * See supra, chap. vi. 
 
 f These species occur in great masses. The number of crosses ( x ) in these lists is 
 intended to point out the relative abundance of the species so marked. 
 
 | This character has not yet been noticed in Clysiophyttum, either by Milne Edwards 
 or McCoy, our two great authorities on British Carboniferous corals. It resembles in 
 this respect Nematophyllum and some Lonsdaleia figured by the latter author. 
 
APPENDIX ON THE FOSSILS. 75 
 
 In the more sandy beds which overlie the 2nd Limestone occur great 
 numbers of bivalve-burrows, very probably of Anthracosia. The shells 
 stand vertically in the sandstone, much in the way described and figured 
 by Mr. Binney in the Lancashire coal-field.* 
 
 A specimen illustrating this feature is in the Museum of Practical 
 Geology. 
 
 The shales contain 
 
 Annelide tubes and casts - - Catcraig. Skateraw. 
 
 XXX Alveolites septosus, Phill. - - do. do. 
 
 ArcJiceocidaris - do. 
 
 A fireclay with Stigmaria and other wood fragments follows, over 
 which lies the 
 
 3rd (Skateraw or Productus) Limestone. 
 
 Chcetetes, branched - - - - Skateraw, 
 
 Zaphrentis, young - do. 
 
 Lithostrotion junceum t M. Edw. - - do. 
 
 ,, irregular e, McCoy - - do. 
 
 XXX Spirifer trigonalis. Sow. - do. 
 
 X X Productus semireticulatus, Mart. - - do. 
 
 aculeatus, Mart. - do. 
 
 XX ,, giganteus, Sow. - do. 
 
 Athyris Roissyi, Lev. - - - do. 
 
 ,, ambigua, Sow. - do. 
 
 Poteriocrinus, stem .... do. 
 
 Acti/nocrinus, and Platycrinus - - do. 
 
 ArcJiceocidaris, spines - do. 
 
 Fish fragments .... do. 
 
 This limestone is covered by a bed of grit with the " Cauda-galli " 
 abundant in it. On the Aberlady shore, 12 miles to the west, a similar bed 
 overlies a limestone which may be the equivalent of the Skateraw seam. 
 
 Above the 3rd Limestone come some thick dark shales, well seen in the 
 railway cutting at East Barns, 2| miles east of Dunbar, and also on the 
 beach at Skateraw Harbour. 
 
 Zaphrentis and Poteriocrinus - - East Barns. Skateraw. 
 
 X Productus lortgispinar, Sow. - do. 
 
 Spirifer ovalis, Phill. ... do. 
 
 Loxonema rugifera, Phill. - - do. 
 
 X Macrocheilus brevis, Phill. - - - do. 
 
 XXX Euomphalus carbonarius, Sow. - do. 
 
 X Bellerophon decussatus, Flem. - do. 
 
 ,, Urii, Flem. ... do. 
 
 X Ctenodonta gibbosa, Flem. ... do. 
 
 X ,, attenuata, Flem. - do. 
 
 X ,, var.brevirostrum, Phill. do. 
 
 Sanguvnolites costellatus, McCoy - - do. 
 
 X X Orthoceras annulare, Flem. ... do. do. 
 
 XX ,, cylindraceum, Flem. - - do. do. 
 
 These shales appear to have a wide extension ; they are certainly recog- 
 nizable in Fife, and, from the fossils, they would seem to be as distinct in 
 Lanarkshire. Ure's Eutherglen fossils were chiefly found in them the 
 NuculcB or Ctenodontce, Belleroplion, Loxonema,^ and Orthoceras, especially 
 being conspicuous forms. This zone of shale will thus form a good horizon 
 for the working out of the Scottish Carboniferous Limestone series. 
 
 4th (or Chapel Point) Limestone 
 is not very rich in fossils. It has yielded 
 
 X X Lithostrotion junceum, M. Edw. - - Skateraw. 
 
 ,, irregulare, McCoy - do. 
 
 Bellerophon cornu-arietis , Sow. - - do. 
 
 with " Cauda-galli," and in the overlying sandstone large Lepidodendron. 
 
 * Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. Manchester, 2ndser., vol. 10, p. 181. 
 
76 
 
 GEOLOGY OF EAST LOTHIAN. 
 
 I noticed, around a massive trunk of Lepidodendron, casts of an immense 
 number of worm-burrows of large size, as if these creatures had been 
 feeding on the decaying vegetable matter. Part of this specimen is in the 
 Museum of Practical Geology. 
 
 5th (or Flinty) Limestone. 
 
 This bed (equally well shown on the Fife coast) is full of " Cauda-galli," 
 small eiicriuites, cup-corals, and a Syringopora. But fossils are particu- 
 larly scarce and small. Over these beds a yellow freestone, used for 
 building, has not yet yielded any fossils.* 
 
 The limestones, as well as the calciferous sandstone series around Had- 
 dington, appear to be very barren of fossils. On the coast at Aberlady 
 the hree lower limestones are well shown ; the 3rd or Skateraw bed, 
 however, is better seen at Longniddry railway section, where it is covered 
 by a bed of " Cauda-galli" sandstone, similar to that east of Dunbar. 
 
 1 st Limestone of Aberlady. 
 
 X Lithostrotion junceum, M. Edw. 
 
 ,, irregulare, McCoy 
 
 Productua, sp. - - 
 
 Athyris ambigua, Sow. 
 
 2nd Limestone of Aberlady 
 
 Fenestella plebeia, McCoy 
 
 >< >< >< -yabundant. 
 
 - x - 
 
 3d Limestone of Aberlady probably the Skateraw bed. 
 
 Lithostrotion junceum, M. Edw. - Longniddry. 
 Productus giganteus, Sow. - do. 
 
 ,, semireticulatus, Mant. - do.' 
 
 ,, longispinus, Sow. do. 
 
 ,, punctatus, Sow. - ,.^, ' 
 
 Athyris ambigua, Sow. - - - 
 
 Orthis resupinata, Sow. - - do. 
 
 Solenomya, sp. - - - ;,j>r 
 
 Orthoceras cylindraceum, Flem. - i .y'. 
 
 Kidlaw, near Gifford, 
 where what appears 
 to be the same bed 
 occurs. 
 
 do. 
 
 -,j },- ft, ^o. 
 
 ,, .'.-%'' do. 
 
 The shales above the 3rd Limestone at Jerusalem Limeworks contain a 
 few fossils similar to those in the corresponding shales at Skateraw. 
 
 The Upper Limestones of Cockenzie and Prestonpans contain only a few 
 species, and these the same as the lower beds of Mountain Limestone. 
 They are 
 
 Cyathophyllum - - O'AvC - Cockenzie. 
 
 Chonetes Hardrensis, Phill. - - do. 
 
 * The beds along the Broxmouth shore between the 
 White Sands and the West Links would perhaps repay 
 further search for fossils. It is not easy to identify them 
 by the fossils with the five limestones just enumerated. 
 The first or lowest limestone of that section, seen imme- 
 diately to the north-west of the greenstone dyke at the 
 Millstone Neuk, may be, and probably is, the Skateraw 
 or third limestone above described, and the fourth most 
 resembles the Chapel Point seam, No. 4 in the foregoing 
 list. A Lepidodendron not uncommon in the sandstones 
 among these limestones is here figured, fig. 24. 
 
 Fig. 24. Lepidodendron (undescribed) from 
 sandstone among the rabbit-warrens 
 Broxmouth shore, east of Dunbar. 
 
APPENDIX/ON ,THE, FOSSILS. , 
 
 77 
 
 Prestonpans. 
 
 do. 
 do. 
 
 Bankfoot. 
 
 Prestonpans 
 
 Productus semireticulatus, Mant. 
 
 ,, fimbriatus, Sow. - - Cockenzie. 
 
 ,, longispinus, Sow. - - do. 
 
 Streptorliyncus crenistria, Phill. 
 Spirifer trigonalis, Mant. 
 
 X X Chemnitzia, a slender species, with \ 
 close turreted whorls - J 
 
 Bellerophon decussatus, Flem. 
 Stigmaria occurs occasionally. 
 
 It is not of course pretended that the arrangement of fossils given in the 
 above lists will be applicable to all the districts of the Scottish Carbonife- 
 rous formation. But it is certainly a fact that the five or six beds of lime- 
 stone on the opposite Fife coast, distant 19 or 20 miles, are nearly identical 
 in fossils with the Dunbar series. I ascertained this in company with the 
 Local Director and Mr. H. H. Howell, and have reason to believe that the 
 same arrangement holds good for districts further west. We have been 
 too much in the habit of treating the Mountain Limestone as a whole. Its 
 separation into distinct beds over part of the Scottish area has shown that 
 it is possible, with careful collecting, to identify these distinct layers a 
 point of some importance in the search for coal. 
 
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