504 D. Balsillie — The Geology of Kinkell Ness. 



therefore, specimens can be got with the outer contour preserved it 

 will not be possible for me to name or determine the age of these 

 teeth." Unfortunately I have not so far had opportunity of searching 

 for better specimens. 



In further reference to the age of the llock and Spindle vent it may 

 at first serve some useful purpose to regard it merely as one of 

 a great connected series and discuss briefly the general question of 

 the antiquity of the necks in East Fife. 



As has been pointed out by Sir Archibald Geikie, 1 not only are 

 the necks later than the strata through which they rise, they are 

 later also than the development of the tectonic features, i.e. the 

 plication and faulting of the area. One particularly interesting 

 example confirming this which does not formerly appear to have 

 been brought to notice occurs on the beach just where the Encrinite- 

 bed comes to the surface east from Kinkell Ness. Here it can be 

 seen that a vent has risen along the line of a fault but has not had 

 its enclosed materials shifted by the fracture, although the Encrinite- 

 bed and its overlying Naiadites limestone are cut off and have been 

 displaced considerably to the north-west. Sir A. Geikie believes, 

 and, one is inclined to think, rightly believes, that if we regard the 

 vents as belonging to one period, and that is an important point, then 

 not only are they later, but a good deal later, than the youngest 

 Carboniferous strata of the district. The next matter, therefore, to 

 settle is, how long posterior to the youngest Coal-measures are they ? 



Further, briefly summarizing Sir A. Geikie's opinions on the 

 matter it may be stated that he correlated the vents in East Fife 

 with certain vents in Ayrshire which are believed to be of Permian 

 age. He argued that the now visible parts of the neeks, consisting 

 in many cases of bedded ashes and tuffs, could not be far removed 

 from the actual crater bases of the old volcanoes, and that therefore 

 there could not have taken place since Permian times such an 

 amount of erosion as one might reasonably expect. He concluded 

 that the whole district must have been buried under younger — 

 possibly Mesozoic — deposits, and in this way preserved. The 

 removal of these younger sediments had restored the topography 

 approximately to what it was in the days of active vulcanicity. 

 Memorials of the vanished formation he thought he could detect in 

 the staining and reddling of the rocks in the eastern portion of the 

 county, and in support of that opinion cited similar evidence of 

 staining in Dumfriesshire, where it could be demonstrated that 

 Triassic sandstones and marls had been stripped off from an area over 

 a hundred square miles in extent. 



To Sir Archibald Geikie's long and masterly discussion the writer 

 can presume to add but little. It does not seem easy to admit that 

 all the vents in East Fife can belong exactly to one period, even 

 although petrographically their materials present such uniformity 

 of character. Thus, for instance, a series of boreholes on the outer 

 flanks of Largo Law has afforded clear indication that there was 

 contemporaneous volcanic activity in that area in Carboniferous 



1 The Geology of Eastern Fife, p. 279. 



