GEOLOGY. 33 



great thickness. The yellow sandstone is the clear and certain 

 line of demarcation along the northern verge of the under- 

 coal series. And as if to render that line still more definite, 

 the truncated edges of every member of the series are severally 

 brought to the surface along the elevated ridge to the east and 

 west. Thus, at St. Andrews, the beds are all exposed to view 

 by the action of the waves, under the Hne of the Castle rock 

 and the Witch Lake, where they amount to twenty-two in 

 number, and to about 150 feet in aggregate thickness. The 

 Lomond acclivities display the relative position of the two 

 classes of rocks in the same distinct manner, where the beds 

 can be counted individually, from the mountain encrinital 

 limestone to the yellow sandstone of Glenvale and L^rquhart ; 

 and along the Cleish, Saline, and Dollar hills there is every- 

 where a favourable opportunity of examining in detail the 

 several members of the group. 



As it is not m}'^ intention to go into details in this memoir 

 of Dura Den and its relative rocks, suffice it to state that 

 Fifeshire contains an epitome of the Carboniferous system, 

 divided into numerous local basins, and everywhere character- 

 ized by the boundary lines of the lower and older formations. 

 The eruptive rocks, within the area of the coal-field, are here 

 also to be studied to great advantage, where they have played 

 no insignificant part in giving shape and outline to the landscape, 

 and in laying open the enclosed treasures. It were indeed 

 impossible to convey an adequate idea, in mere description, of 

 the marvellous display of plutonic action of which the dis- 

 trict around has been the theatre ; subterranean movements 

 crushing and grinding into fragments the solid strata, parting 

 and heaving them like forest leaves asunder, or crumpling into 

 complicated folds the tougher and more unyielding beds, like 

 some fabric of manufacture tossed and twisted by the wind. 

 The storm lifts the ocean into lofty curling billows, leaving 

 long narrow troughs and frightful yawning chasms beneath. 

 Here, in hke manner, and all over the surface, the crust has 



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