02 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



•of one of our estuarine echinoderms, say the Echina 

 -sphcera. 



It may be mentioned that on the shore within a 

 mile from this quarry is an excellent illustration of 

 the change which a sedimentary rock undergoes by 

 contact with an igneous one. In a narrow stretch of 

 coast-line not more than a furlong in length we have 

 a sandstone gradually developing into a quartz rock, 

 yet so imperceptibly does the change take place as to 

 ■completely defeat any attempt to locate the spot at 

 ■which the sandstone ends and the quartz rock begins. 



Directly north of Invertiel, about 15 miles distant, 

 is the East Lomond Hill, rising 1,471 feet above the 

 level of the sea. The lower and middle portion of 

 this hill, which was in 1881 one of the chief stations 

 ■of the Ordnance Survey, is composed of Calcareous 

 .Sandstone, representing probably some of the lower 

 beds of the English carboniferous rocks, but at the 

 Jieight of 1, 200 feet the limestone crops out and forms 



Tig. 42. — Fencstella 

 iiionbranacea. 



Fig. 43. — Or this rcsupinata. 







5^ig. 44. — Spirifera tr {go- 

 nates, showing internal 

 coil. 



Fig. 45. — Product Its punctatus. 

 (From Taylor's " Common British Fossils.") 



a belt over 12 feet thick, the rock inclining gently to 

 the south-east. 



It is worthy of note that this is one of the highest 



situated exposures in Scotland from which fossils have 



:as yet been obtained. In many places the limestone 



is quite bare, with no soil or covering above it, and 



yet from a thin bed of stone or " blae," quite a large 



Tiumber of shells may be seen, of forms varied and 



perfect, and but little injured or weathered by their 



long exposure to the atmosphere. They, however, 



usually break whenever an attempt is made to 



■extract them from the matrix, and it is only by 



exercising the greatest perseverance and patience that 



fairly good specimens of any of the numerous forms 



■of Productus, Spirifera, RhynconcUa, etc., can be 



carried away. Over a century ago this hill was 



worked for lead, which in the form of galena also 



yielded silver. The ore, now unprofitable for work- 



angj was massive and in hexahedral crystals. 



In the west of Fife are the limestone quarries of 

 Limekilns and Charleston, about a mile apart. At 

 the former place the rock was worked so long ago as 

 the 17th century, and must have been an important 

 article of industry and commerce even fifty years 

 ago. Its value to this once thriving village may be 

 better understood by mentioning that from 1840 to 

 1S50 the average annual output of limestone exceeded 



Fig. 46.— Clisiophyllum. (From Taylor': 

 FosbiU.') 



' Common British 



Pig. 47.— Transverse section of Clisiophyllum. 



15,000 tons, while the value of the raw material 

 previous to burning and shipment amounted to 

 nearly ;iC4000. The rock has been wrought from the 

 face of the outcrop, north-east to south-west, and veiy 

 close to the shore. Step by step the workings have 

 been carried westwards towards Charleston, the site 

 of the present very restricted operations. The result 

 is that the appearance of the coast-line for upwards of 



