PREFACE. 



luded to, is the ruin of Fast Castle, built on a magnificent clift 

 overhanging the waves. A little eastward from this, we reach 

 the mouth of a naked, deep, and savage glen, equally interest- 

 ing to the botanist and geologist ; and, after a few additional 

 miles, arrive at the magnificent mountain promontory of St 

 Ebba. 



" Few parts of the kingdom can exhibit a finer and more 

 splendid piece of coast scenery than St Abb's, to him especially 

 who surveys it from the sea beneath, whether it be in the sum- 

 mer season, when in calmness and security he sails over the 

 peaceful and pellucid waters, amid gloomy caverns, rocky arch- 

 ways, and majestic cliffs, half shattered by the storm or light- 

 ning, and shooting up aloft their giant greatness to the skies ; 

 or whether he visit it when the myriads of sea-fowl are clothing 

 the lofty cliffs, or darkening with their multitudes the noon-day 

 sun, or filling all the surrounding echoes with their dissonant 

 voices ; or whether, when the elements of sea and sky are min- 

 gled together, and the waves are lashed up to foam, he sits se- 

 curely on its mountain-top, and eyes the maddening strife* 



" But it is not for its mere natural scenery that St Abb's is so 

 interesting it is, if possible, still more so, in a geological point 

 of view. In a sketch of this description, it may be sufficient 

 to describe St Abb's as a huge insulated mass of trap rocks, of 

 which the principal are, trap-tuffa, amygdaloid, and felspar por* 

 pkyry. In the first of these rocks there is generally a basis 

 of clay, with imbedded portions of basalt, amygdaloid and por- 

 phyry. In the second rock there is also a distinct basis or ground, 

 generally of a greenish coloured clay, containing amygdaloidal 

 shaped cavities filled with calcareous spar, zeolite, quartz no- 

 dules and agates. In the last rock the basis is generally fel- 



