1901-1902.| Geological History of the Coast of Fife. 369 
to be a volcano as large as Vesuvius, with a big parasitic cone 
on its eastern flank, where Arthur’s Seat stands now. Eventu- 
ally, this important volcano ceased to erupt, and finally died out 
as the land continued to sink. Soon after this event estuarine 
sediments began to be deposited upon the slopes of the Old 
Red Sandstone hill in Fife, and the sandstones seen below 
Grange, around Colinswell, and to the east of Aberdour were 
laid down. ‘These are part of the Granton Sandstone Series. 
By this time volcanic action, quieted down in the Lothians, 
had begun to break out in Fife. A series of small cones 
formed the starting-point of larger volcanoes — in some cases 
dying out as the points of eruption changed their position. 
One of these abortive attempts at building up a volcano was 
met with in the course of some workings to the west of 
Grange, where the baby volcano was found, smothered in bed, 
as it were, by a great pile of sandstones which had been heaped 
upon it. 
As the land continued to sink other sediments were formed, 
each one spreading over a larger area than the one that pre- 
ceded it—the hill forming what is now the Howe of Fife in 
the meantime rising far above the water. At this stage the 
remarkable and widespread deposit known as the Burdiehouse 
Limestone was formed. It is not, I think, directly of organic 
origin, but is really a mixture of chemically-precipitated car- 
bonate of lime (with some dolomite) and carbonaceous matter, 
in nature allied to oil-shale. Soon after this we find evidence 
that the great series of Oil Shale Beds, whose hydrocarbon is 
of so much importance in the Lothians, gradually accumulated 
in the estuary as the land continued to subside. Still the 
Howe of Fife eminence stood above the waters. It is these 
Oil Shale rocks, as I pointed out many years ago, which form 
the great series of strata seen along the Fife coast from St 
Andrews, past the East Neuk of Fife to near St Monans, and 
which are also seen around Burntisland and Kinghorn, Early 
in this period volcanic action commenced in real earnest, and 
we find clear evidence of the event in the rocks around what 
is now the Binn of Burntisland. From this centre, or series 
of centres, one eruption after another took place, chiefly in the 
form of quiet effusive eruptions instead of explosive outbursts. 
From this volcano there flowed out to the north, north-east, 
