138 REV. J. C. ATKINSON ON THE MINERALS OF BERWICKSHIRE. 



of the sLx sides ; and there is some coarse calcedony or agate. 

 But what is this 1 There must be iron in these veins by their 

 colour ; and how bright that colour on the fresh fracture, — not 

 unlike that of the liver of an animal ; but how rapidly it fades 

 after the touch of our moistened fingers. At this point it passes 

 into jasper to all appearance, — the fracture smooth, the colour 

 red, and silica almost its sole constituent. 



Truly, I should not have expected so great variety in so small 

 a compass, and yet we have not quite exhausted it. Here is a large 

 specimen of crystallized carbonate of lime in a setting of crystallized 

 quartz ; and there a small one of calcedony similarly set ; and 

 here the crystals of quartz alone. These frequent veins, too, some 

 of pure quartz, and others seemingly of mixed silica and lime j— 

 what a beautiful appearance they give to the porphyritic rock. 

 And this thin whitish substance, forming these veins in a stone so 

 easily frangible, is not quite unworthy of notice. I took it for 

 soapstone (of which there is an impure kind on the rock close by) 

 at first, but it is not ; and I expect that, if such an alliance be 

 permitted in the mineral kingdom, it contains lime, baryta, silica, 

 and magnesia. • 



I will now ask you to accompany me somewhat farther, and I 

 trust you will not be alarmed at the length of the walk, viz., to the 

 shore between Coldingham and Eyemoiith. In the trap rocks 

 between Killiedraught Bay and Coldingham shore, many veins of 

 deep red opaque carbonate of iron are seen. And in a large fragment 

 of rock, about half a mile north of the bay, I found a very splendid 

 specimen of the ore, in company with barytes, and a little calc-spar, 

 lining a large cavity. This ore is common along all this line of 

 red trap rocks. Steatite, white and grey, in frequent veins of no 

 great thickness, is also very common. When first collected, it is 

 very soft. Its behaviour, when mixed with nitrate of cobalt, and 

 subjected to the blowpipe flame, is singular ; for it not only gives 

 the blue colour due to magnesia, but swells up into a large (com- 

 pared with the actual quantity experimented on) feathery mass, 

 which is singularly beautiful. Here and there, too, the rock has 

 a thin coating of calc-spar, tinged green externally by the weather ; 

 and a few imperfect crystals of quartz may be occasionally met 

 with. And what is this sparkling substance in veins, with beauti- 

 ful iridescences on some of the surfaces when freshly exposed ? 



