and Ratchetu/h Crag. 101 



onward to Howick Burn, there are sandstones of great thickness, 

 arenaceous and carbonaceous shales, and beds of coal, in which 

 are well-preserved and characteristic specimens of the carboni- 

 ferous flora. Several of the sandstone layers exhibit well-defined 

 ripple-marks. Although these beds are of great thickness, the 

 only calcareous strata are a very impure buff limestone of one 

 foot thick, with a coarse plate-bed holding calcareous matter ; 

 both containing marine fossils, among which are Pinna flabel- 

 liformis, Martin, which is seldom found in Northumberland, and 

 the very rare Echinocrinus Urii, Flem. : both the plates and the 

 long muricated spines of this Echinoderm are found south of the 

 Burn. 



Near to the Howick Boat-house, the high tide in 1 849 laid bare 

 a submarme forest, giving evidence of a change of level in the 

 coast within a comparatively recent period. This forest consisted 

 of a number of oak, fir, alder, and hazel trees, some lying pro- 

 strate, and others still rooted and having short upright stems; 

 hazel nuts were also found : these vegetables were imbedded in 

 peat. Similar forests, extending into the sea, have been observed 

 at various parts of the eastern coast. I have seen them at Newton 

 by the Sea, and at Hartlepool, where a six-feet deposit of vege- 

 table matter is covered over with a large accumulation of recent 

 marine shells. 



Leaving the coast and passing by a circular British camp 

 cresting the hill near the mouth of Howick Burn, the members 

 of the Club wended their way to Ratcheugh Crag, which is two 

 miles to the south-west. This crag is part of a range of basaltic 

 eminences running inland from CuUernose ; it commands an 

 extensive prospect along the coast, up the vale of the Aln, and 

 onward to the Cheviot Hills. With a slope to the east, it pre- 

 sents a bold cliff face to the west, formed of huge basaltic columns 

 capped with beds of carboniferous limestone, which on the slope 

 of the hill is covered by a metamorphic shale containing the same 

 fossils as those found in the " Calp " at Howick. At Snableazes, 

 about 300 yards to the south, is another basaltic eminence, having 

 beneath it a metamorphic shale identical with that on the slope 

 of Ratcheugh, beds of blue limestone, and a thin stratum of 

 basalt. The basalt dips with the other beds generally south-east 

 15°, subject however to undulations; and as the Snableazes 

 quarry is nearly in the line of dip, and as, moreover, the shales 

 in both localities are the same, I consider the thin stratum of 

 basalt a continuation of that at Ratcheugh, which therefore seems 

 to be of very irregular thickness and to have a wedge form. 

 Connecting the two localities, the succession of the beds is as 

 follows, commencing with the uppermost : viz. — 



B.N.C. VOL. III. N^1II. I 



