1822.] Mr. Winch on the Geology of Lindisfarn. 431 
it. From the outer part of the reef on the north side of the 
haven at the coves,* a dyke crosses the strata, and passing 
through the rocks below the southern point may be again 
observed on the beach beyond it. The chasm is six feet wide, 
and filled with limestone in distinct concretions, the colours of 
which pass from dark reddish-brown to greenish-white, mixed 
with small veins and minute crystals of white calcareous spar in 
druses. 
That sand hills cover the Snook I have already mentioned : 
from thence to the neighbourhood of the town, the shore is low, 
and gradually declines nto Fenham Flats without rocks protrud- 
ing from below the soil; but at a short distance within the line 
of sand, an extensive quarry has been worked in fine-grained 
white micaceous sandstone. 
Approaching the town, a cliff of shale rises gradually from the 
north, till its perpendicular face measures about 30 feet, of which 
8 or 10 are diluvium : this bank terminates close to the Heugh. 
The shale is bituminous, and, from exposure to the atmosphere, 
is fragile, and of a reddish-brown colour. Two bands of clay 
ironstone, each four inches thick, traverse it horizontally, and 
nodules of the same ore, enclosing septariz and such plates as 
the pitmen call girdles, together with cubic pyrites, are scattered 
through the whole rock. From the same shale at the foot. of the 
cliff, fragments of the encrinal fossil, formerly highly prized under 
the name of St. Cuthbert’s beads, occur in abundance. Ofa 
shaft that was sunk near this spot, I could obtain no further 
information than the seam of coal penetrated to, being only 14 
inches in thickness, was not worth working, though fuel is a 
great desideratum both for house use, and for burning lime. It 
rs either imported from Newcastle, and subject to a duty, or is 
brought in small carts from the vicinity of Berwick. Having 
finished the survey of the coast, little remains to be added, 
except that tradition points a low field between the town and 
the basin, as the spot from whence the stone is said to have 
been quarried for the erection of the abbey ; it is chiefly of a 
dirty brick-red colour with small spangles of mica, and though 
fine-grained and soft, has resisted the action of the elements 
remarkably well. The millstone grit does not appear in situ, 
though it creeps out on the main both to the north and south of 
the island. From good authority I learn, that glass tubes simi- 
lar in composition, but smaller in size, to those found at Drig, in 
Cumberland, have been detected in sands on the shores. 
Without woods, moorlands, or rivulets, Lindisfarn of course 
possesses a scanty Flora; yet from its slender store, a few plants 
may be selected worthy the notice of botanists unaccustorhed 
to examine such as are indigenous on our sea shores. Crypto- 
gamic species are peculiarly scarce, with the exception of marine 
* This dy e was first noticed by Mr. Culley. 
