NOTES ON THE GEOT-OGY OF DUNBAU SHORE, 99 



in its passage up the jagged aperture, the spray is often thrown high, and 

 far beyond the apparent limit of the tidal force, enveloping the unwary 

 onlooker in a briny shower; and the reflux, equally powerful, will carry 

 back any comparatively light body coming within the reach of its influence: 

 hence the characteristic local name. 



'^The Tufa," says Mr. Cunningham,""" ^^which occurs in such abundance on 

 this part of the coast, is composed of fragments of various Trap rocks, of 

 Sandstohe, Limestone, Ironstone, and Shale, all of which vary in size, from 

 the smallest magnitude to one or two feet; and are embedded in a base of 

 red weckacious clay; which, in some instances, without containing the usual 

 fragments, occurs for a considerable extent, and throughout exhibits a more 

 or less stratified arrangement." 



In the course of our walk, the lines of stratification in these tufaceous cliffs 

 attracted particular attention. They assume the most fantastic forms; now 

 beautifully extended in waving folds, and anon angularly broken and twisted 

 up and down. They vary too in the shades of colour, and this adds to the 

 picturesque beauty of their diversified appearance. 



The cliff's of Tufa are succeeded by others of Sandstone, These are low, 

 indeed scarcely deserve the name; they are rather ledges: they exhibit numerous 

 layers of different colours, and include Sandstone^ Ironstone, and Shale: they 

 have likely been once of greater height, but have suffered denudation. The 

 mass of Trap already referred to, as occurring at Wilkiehaugh, bursts through 

 the Sandstone at the point, immediately beyond which the shore recedes rapidly, 

 with a sandy beach, forming Belhaven Bay. Belton Burn joins the sea here, 

 and beyond it stretch the broad flat sands of Tyne. 



Upon the sands to the east of the embouchure of Belton Water, there is a 

 little tower, built over a mineral well. It forms a good record of the changes 

 contimially taking place on such an exposed coast: it used to be approached 

 from the higher beach by a gangway, underneath which a pedestrian might 

 easily pass. On the occasion of our visit, the gangway and half the toAver 

 were buried in the sand. A little way on, we have a record of a different 

 kind. The constant action of wind and tide has laid open in the sand cliff" 

 above the beach, several (I counted six,) stone-built coffins containing human 

 bones: history speaks not of their occupants, and even tradition is silent 

 respecting them. The shifting sand — the most recent of all the geologic rocks, 

 has held them for a thousand years. ' Who shall write the chronology of the 

 framework beneath, against which the gravelly matrix of these tombs had 

 accumulated, ages before the first of the last ten centuries had begun its course. 



We turned up the side of Belton Water, and gained the road from Haddington, 

 by which we returned to the town, along the side of a trough-like valley, 

 sloping away, on the one hand, to the Lammermuir hills, and on the other, 

 ascending by a considerable acclivity, especially in the Trap eminence called 

 Knockinghair, to the verge of the cliff's, whose perpendicular front is the ocean 



* "Wemerian Transactions," vii., 9.5. 



