(52 



^^^[^^■■esof^oanhead 



The ESK. 



Scale of one English Mile. 



In arguing from these appearances, the author considered that, at 

 the commencement of the Carboniferous epoch, the coal beds of the 

 Forth and Clyde did not, agreeably to received theories, indicate an 

 Archipelago of islets, like those of the Pacific, little elevated above 

 the level of the sea, but, on the contrary, an unbroken expanse, 

 bounded on the north by the elevated ranges of the Grampians, and 

 on the south by the high ridge of grauwacke schist which runs from 

 St Abb's Head to the Mull of Galloway ; and that while the higher 

 lands might have encouraged the growth of coniferae, the ferns, 

 equiseta, and other monocotyledonous plants of our coal-fields, 

 flourished amidst marshes, or on the borders of fresh-water lakes, 

 tenanted by entomostraca, conchifera, and fish, and to which resorted 

 various saurian animals. This land, as had been previously remark- 

 ed, appears to have undergone a depression, probably of a gradual 

 nature, by which it became liable to the inroads of the sea. Eventu- 

 ally, however, (as the extensive coal strata lying above the marine 

 limestone sufficiently indicate), the land became once more elevated 

 above the ocean, and again afforded a soil to the Flora of ^tropical 

 climates. 



The author next remarked, that he had found a fresh-water de- 

 posit, like that of Burdiehouse and Calder, to extend lo Fifeshire, 

 where it existed as a thinner bed ; and that, in addition to the co- 

 prolites and fish discovered more than a year ago by Lord Greenock 

 and Mr Trevelyan in the iron-stone nodules of Wardie, Mr Robison, 

 General Secretary of the Royal Society, had procured saurian remains 

 from the coal-field of Greenside near Glasgow', and liad discovered 



