129 



a fine blue greenstone or basalt. The change on the sandstone is 

 remarkable. The interlacing of the two rocks, and intrusion of string- 

 like veins of trap among the sandstone strata, as forcibly attest as 

 any dike in Arran the irruption of a liquid stream of lava into the 

 crevices of a fissured mass. 



The Fallen Rocks are about two miles from Sannox ; they are an 

 immense debacle of masses of old red sandstone hurled from a hill 

 above where an overhanging cliff gave way ; and now strewing the 

 beach and steep slope in magnificent confusion. They seem freshly 

 fallen, yet Headrick described them fifty years ago as we see them 

 now. 



89. Immediately west of the Fallen Bocks, we come on the lower 

 beds of the carboniferous series following conformably on the old red 

 sandstone. They are very similar to the corresponding beds at the 

 march of Achab farm, n<?ar Corrie; a calcareous conglomerate, with 

 beds of white limestone, being the lowest. These are followed by 

 sandstone and shale, with nodular limestone and thick bedded red 

 and white sandstones, till we reach the limestones near the Salt Pans, 

 which are the same as the Corrie beds. But we must not omit to 

 notice the great trap beds of Lagantuin bay, which upturn the 

 shales from their usual inclination of 20 to an angle of 58. These 

 traps are amygdaloid with zeolites, steatite, and carbonate of lime, 

 claystone, and porphyrytic greenstone or trap porphyry with 

 crystals of diallage. The coast section near the coal pits is very 

 interesting ; it is thus given by Murchison and Sedgwick, as seen 

 west of Millstone point : 



1. Blue shale, with limestone, . . . 25 feet, 



2. White sandstone, 2,700 



3. Carboniferous limestone and shale, alternating, 120 



4. White sandstone and variegated shales, . 2,000 



Sandstone and shale, containing seams of coal, succeed these till 

 the beach is obscured by shingle. The principal seam is three or 

 four feet thick; but has been worked out, as far, at least, as the 

 level of the sea, which now invades the seam. It was used only 

 at the adjoining salt and lime works, and never exported. There 

 were workings on two or three seams in the direction of the 

 dip, which is nearly at 45 north, but all were abandoned, when, 

 from the depth of the workings, the sea gained access to the pits. 

 The coal is of that variety called blind coal, containing an unusual 

 quantity of carbon, and burning without flame or smoke. Many vege- 

 table impressions, chiefly ferns and calamites, were found in the coal 



