^OTES ON THE GKOI.OOY OF HAST I.OTIIIAN AXD TJERWICKSfllRE. 175 



blende. To the north the coast again becomes elevated^ and near Tantallan 

 Castle the cliflfe are particularly rugged, and rise to the height of a hundred feet. 



And now to be a little more particular. On the forenoon of the 27th., 

 our little party wandered leisurely along the coast towards Belhavcn; but 

 as this has all been described in Mr. Ferguson's admirable paper, I will 

 pass on to our afternoon's ramble, eastward along the shore, to the Catcraig. 

 On our road we passed over and admired many interesting geological phenom- 

 ena, — the thin sharp edges of the Old Red, having the appearance, as Mr. 

 Ferguson graphically describes it, of ^^the ridges of a ploughed field on a 

 gigantic scale," so regularly are they laid out. Suddenly we find this regularity 

 close: the gently-sloping edges are raised to the vertical position, then they 

 are reversed, and here we find them reclining on a great dyke of Greenstone; 

 we find this succeeded by the ancient forest and the ripple-mark, and then 

 the Shale with its Encrinites.^ We now walk over a fine expanse of sand, 

 and arrive at the Catcraig. The rock here is Limestone, and it is characterized 

 by the immense abundance of Corals which it contains — indeed it appears to 

 have been one great reef; the colour is a bluish gray; it is. very compact, 

 and highly crystalline, and its thickness seems to be considerable. I may 

 mention that here the strata are quite horizontal. The Corals of this bed 

 are Madreporites, and imbedded with them are some Terehratulce, and in the 

 Shales around, which form the lower beds of this Limestone, the larger 

 Producti are so abundant as almost entirely to form these lower layers of 

 the Limestone beds. They uniformly rest with the convex side of the valve 

 downwards, thereby indicating the tranquil condition of the bed of the sea 

 where they lived and died. 



On the morning of the 28th., the party proceeded by rail to Cockburns- 

 path, which stands upon the borders of the counties of East Lothian and 

 Berwickshire, and walked from that to Siccar Point, along the headlands. 

 The road is wild and varied: the path overhangs the sea, which it commands 

 beautifully, yet fearfully, to a great extent. It is a silent, sublime, and 

 sea-beat scene, where the German Ocean rolls its strength on the rocky 

 precipices; and to enjoy the wild sublimity of the landscape, we often stood 

 awhile and listened calmly to the fierce music of the waves which beat 

 against the rugged base, and were then lashed into the whitest foam, as if 

 enraged at their own impotent fury. The noonday light of a cold, clear 

 February day was full on the rocks, bringing out in bold relief their varied 

 lights and shades, the old ruined church of St. PTelen's, hoary with age, and 

 the modern homes: no cry of the mariner, no voices from the crowded mart, 

 or from the chambers of luxury, came over the waters. 



Having reached Siccar Point, we descended the precipice by a road, to a 

 giddy head, not very safe, exit out by the proprietor Sir James Hall, for 

 the convenience of visitors. Having arrived at the bottom, we entered the 



* For a beaiitiful and correct description of the strata in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 Dunbar, See ifr. AY. Ferguson's monograph in "Tlie Naturalist," vol. i., page 97. 



