the Old Red Sandstone of Fife. I43 



contents, and mineralogical characters, and hence they must be 

 regarded as belonging to the same geological epoch. Dr Flem- 

 ing, m the paper referred to above, considers that there are two 

 beds of hmestone inferior to the mountain limestone in Fife 

 the one occurring towards " the lowest part of the yellow sand- 

 stone,^' and the other « towards the upper part of the old red 

 nearly similar to the one which has been mentioned as existin^^ 

 at the lower part of the yellow sandstone." But for this dist 

 tinction I can see no sufficient reason ; the elevated, insular posi- 

 tion of the Newton bed renders it difficult, indeed, to trace the 

 relation to the other members of the series, while in its structure 

 It approaches nearer to a conglomerate than any of the rest • 

 but It partakes of this character in common with that of the 

 CargiU hmestone, which rests immediately upon the old red 

 sandstone. And thus there appears to be but one deposit, co- 

 extensive nearly with the old red sandstone, passing hke that 

 rock from the homogeneous to the conglomerate state, and of a 

 mixed inferior quality throughout. 



3. Grey Sandstone.-Thh deposit I consider as underlying 

 the old red sandstone, being the next member of the series in 

 the descending order. It is but very sparingly distributed in 

 Fife, and is wholly confined to the northern extremity of it 

 Proceeding along the south bank of the Tay, from east to west 

 the grey sandstone first appears at Wormit Bay, cropping out 

 from the bed of the river and dipping to the SE. afan angle of 32° 

 It alternates with claystone, compact felspar, and amygdaloid, 

 when It speedily changes the dip to SW. at an angle of 22° 

 and becomes so interlaced with these rocks as to split up into 

 thin beds of half an inch to a quarter in thickness. These beds 

 are generally of a bluish-grey colour, closs-grained, having a 

 tendency to exfoliate parallel to the lamina, of deposit, which 

 are highly micaceous. In some place, however, they run into 

 one another, so that it is almost impossible to determine where 

 the depository bed ends, and the amorphous or crystalline rock 

 begins. The original inclination is again resumed as we follow 

 the direction of sandstone westward through the parish of Bal- 

 mermo, (where it is used for building materials as well as roof- 

 ing) until It terminates on tiie east escarpment of Norman's 



