86 REPORT — 1860. 



blendic lava. It is probable that beneath the sea-level sheets of such lava and vol- 

 canic ash lie interstratified with the coral limestone. Certainly, if Torres Straits were 

 depressed, and these islands exposed to the breakers, horizontal beds of the ash and 

 volcanic conglomerates would be derived from them, and spread over the surface of the 

 coral reefs. 



On the Tynedale Coal-field and the Whin-sill of Cumberland and Northumber- 

 land. By J. A. Knipe. 



The author points out the interesting fact of the true Newcastle coal being worked, 

 and that most successfully, at a distance of about 40 miles west of the Great Northum- 

 berland and Durham coal-fields at the locality named. The history of this and an ad- 

 joining coal-field, called the Stublick, are both similar, viz. the strata are thrown down 

 many hundred feet by the prolongation of the 90 Fathom Fault, which is well known 

 and may be well observed on the Northumberland coast at Cullercotes. The principal 

 shaft sunk on this outlying coal-field, on the line of railway from Haltwhistle to Aid- 

 stone Moor, is named the "King Pit," Midgeholm Colliery. The depth of the shaft 

 is 506 feet 6 inches; there are five workable seams of coal, the aggregate thickness 

 of which is 23 feet. 



The Great Whin-sill, or interstratified trap, may be traced, more or less, for many 

 score miles in the counties of Cumberland and Northumberland, to its termination 

 on the coast of the German Ocean, at Dunstanburgh Castle. At Wall Town, situated 

 on the old Roman Road, north by west from Haltwhistle, a town and station on 

 the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, about 2i miles, the Whin-sill assumes a very bold 

 bluff appearance, after emerging from the superincumbent limestone rock. In places 

 it has a columnar structure, but has now much of its mural appearance changed by 

 trees growing amongst the ruin and debris of the rocky structure ; on the summit 

 there is still a very perfect portion left of the Roman wall. The author described the 

 section through the limestone grit shales, ironstone, and Blenkinsop Mines to the King 

 Pit and Tynedale Fault. 



On ike Eruption in May 1860, of the Kotliigja Volcano in Iceland. 

 By W. Lauder Lindsay, M.D., F.L.S. 



It may interest the Geological Section of the British Association to be informed 

 that an eruption has recently occurred of the Kotliigja volcano, Iceland, from a visit 

 to which island I have just returned. Had time permitted (which it does not) I in- 

 tended to have drawn up for the British Association a brief account of the chief phe- 

 nomena of the eruption in question, accompanied by drawings made on the 13th June 

 Inst., and a map of the district, and preceded by a summary of the preceding erup- 

 tions of the same volcano, which are fourteen in number. I hope at greater leisure to 

 prepare such a notice for some of the journals. 



Meanwhile I may concisely state that the volcafno in question is situated in the 

 south of Iceland, about twenty miles from the coast, near, but considerably to the east 

 of, the well-known Hekla, which has been quiescent since 1846. Kotliigja is part of a 

 range, fifteen to twenty miles long, of glacier-covered mountains or " Jokuls," which 

 include Eyafjalla, Myrdals and Godalands Jokuls ; the average elevation above the 

 sea being between 4000 and 5000 feet. The eruption began on the 8th of May last; 

 it was preceded by earthquakes of a local character; the first indication of its advent 

 being a dark cloud hovering over the summit of the mountain. The usual chief ejecta 

 of Kotliigja, when in a state of eruption, are hot water, pumice, and ashes. On the 

 occasion of the last, or fifteenth eruption, in May last, the most noteworthy pheno- 

 menon was the enormous water-flo-d sent forth, a flood which bore with it pieces of 

 ice so large that they were stranded in the sea (twenty miles distant) at a depth of 20 

 fathoms. The flames which issued from the crater were on the 12th of May visible 

 in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, which is at least eighty miles distant; and on 

 the 16th smoke rose to the height of 24,000 feet, this column of smoke being also 

 visible in Reykjavik. I left Scotland for Iceland on the 8th of June inst, expecting to 

 find Kotlugjd still giving forth its fire and pouring out its floods of water. On the 13th 

 we sailed close to the south coast of Iceland from Portland's Hak westward, the wea- 

 ther being beautiful and our view of Myrdals- Jbkul and the neighbouring Jokuls ex- 



