THE OLD RED SANDSTONE SYSTEM. 



681 



CHAPTER V. 



Trap Dyke, Brockhill, Worcester. 



THE OLD RED SANDSTONE SYSTEM. 



NTIL a comparatively recent date, it has been 

 usual to distribute the members of this 

 system among its neighbours, the sub 

 jacent Silurian and the overlying carbon 

 iferous systems, the principal pai't being 

 incorporated with the latter. This is the 

 plan adopted by Dr. Buckland and Profes 

 sor Phillips; but Sir R. Murchison has clearly 

 shown its right to an independent status, 

 having distinct lithological characters and 

 zoological contents. " You must inevitably 

 give up the old red sandstone," said a dis 

 tinguished foreigner to the latter, who was 

 well acquainted with the ancient forma 

 tions; " it is a mere local deposit, a doubt 

 ful accumulation huddled up in a corner, 

 and has no type or representative abroad." " I would willingly give it up if Nature 

 would," was the reply ; " but it assuredly exists, and I cannot." It is now universally 

 admitted that the English geologist was correct in classifying the strata in question as a 

 separate system, one of the best defined groups of rocks in Great Britain, though ill deve 

 loped in France and Germany, and hence the hesitation of the continental geologists to 

 consider it entitled to that rank. It has however been recognised in Germany and Poland ; 

 it occupies vast areas in southern Russia, Siberia, and Tartary ; it forms the southern 

 flanks of the Himmalaya mountains ; occurs in Africa, and in various parts of the western 

 world. In Scotland, the old red sandstone is exhibited upon an immense scale, extending 

 in a broad unbroken bar across the kingdom, along the line of the Grampians from the east 

 coast at Stonehaven to the Firth of Clyde. Two large bands also appear on each side of 

 the Moray Firth, stretching far into the interior of the great Caledonian valley. It 

 occupies the northern coast of Caithness, the neighbourhood of Cape Wrath in Suther- 

 landshire, and is found in large detached masses along a considerable part of the western 

 coast. Mr. Miller supposes that at some early period these beds were continuous, forming 

 a girdle round the entire coast of the north of Scotland ; and from the occurrence of 

 island-like patches in the interior, he conjectures that, at some still earlier period, this 

 girdle formed a mantle, which covered the enclosed tract, consisting of the entire 

 Highlands. Porphyries, granites, gneisses, and micaceous schists now compose the central 

 region, surrounded by a broken sandstone frame, the remains of the mantle, which was 

 rent, and in great part swept away, when upheaving fires below and ocean currents above 

 contended in sublime antagonism. An attentive examination of the physical aspect of 

 the district, where igneous action is so extensively displayed, and evidence of vast 

 denudation appears, suggested the idea now stated to the author of the " Old Red 

 Sandstone, or New Walks in an Old Field," a volume which could only have been 

 produced by the very highest genius, combining as it does the fascination of romance 

 with the acquirements of science. 



