104 NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY OF DUNBAR SHORE. 



think that this notion is borne out by the circumstance^ that in two 

 specimens I examined^ the lamince of ^ the Sandstone were bent round 

 underneath the portion of the fossil embedded in them, as if it had been 

 impressed upon an already deposited bed of some coherency, rather than 

 been silted up, where it grew in a gradually accumulating deposit. Some of 

 these beds are farther marked by curious hollows, ^^as if" says Mr. James 

 Miller, "pitted with small-pox of no ordinary dimensions." 



Beyond this point. Limestone occurs to a considerable extent* it is of a 

 bluish grey colour, and fuU of organic remains. These are well seen at 

 Catcraig, where one portion to the east of the harbour is characterised by 

 shells, and another to the west by corals. These patches of Limestone seem 

 to be repeated all along the coast, at least, so far as the county of Haddington 

 extends. 



A glance at the map will show that the Carboniferous rocks in this 

 district, are a patch isolated from the great Coal-field, extending between 

 the Friths of Forth and Clyde. It may be all that remains on this side 

 the great escarpment of the old Eed Sandstone of the Lammermuirs, of what 

 was once continuous with the great Coal-field. It occupies a hollow in the old 

 lied system, which extends considerably into the interior, and is in turn flanked 

 by the Slates, which cross in an unbroken line, from St. Abb's Head on 

 the east, to Port Patrick on the west coast, and are regarded as the 

 equivalent of the lower Silurian group of the south. Further on, at Siccar, 

 may be seen the junction of the stratified with the unstratified rocks — the 

 quiet children of ocean, with the more rugged children of fire. But the 

 present sketch does not pass beyond the boundary of East Lothian: and 

 I only add farther, that to any visitor, this shore abounds with attractions 

 of no mean merit. The form of the rocks, urged, as it were, to bold defiance 

 of the waves, by the upheaving and indurating influences of fire, yet battered 

 and broken by the aqueous power, eventually triumphant over its more 

 energetic, but less sustained brother, are worthy of the study of those who 

 love variety combined with wildness. The pools foliaged with thickets of 

 purple and green and white corallines, and with zoophytes and algae, and 

 peopled by the wondrous races of ocean life ; may well hold the lover of the 

 beautiful, as well as the student of Marine Zoology, entranced in ardent 

 admiration. While the broad expanse of ocean itself, ever changeful, yet 

 ever unchanged, greets the view and gratifies endlessly the gaze, an object 

 the more looked at, the more admired, whether lashed into the wild 

 magnificence of tempest, or hushed into the gleaming quietude of repose. 



"Tlierc is society where none intrude, 

 By the deep sea, and music in its roar." 



****** 



"ilnd I have loved thee, Ocean." 

 Glasfjuw, April 28th., 1851. 



