26 Gethte— Old Volcanic Action at Burntisland. 
been attributed to its having dropt in mid-ocean either from 
the roots of some floating tree, or from a raft of earth-laden 
ice. But in the present instance, the water was in all likeli- 
hood very shallow, and there is therefore not much probability 
that either drifting wood or ice had anything to do with the 
transport of the greenstone boulder. There is only one suppo- 
sition which will satisfactorily account for all the phenomena, 
viz., that the stone is a true volcanic bomb, which was ejected 
from some neighbouring crater, and fell with force through the 
shallow marshy water, burying itself deep in the half-formed 
fireclay bed. Nor is this the only evidence of the continued 
activity of the volcanic forces in the Burntisland district during 
the interval between the outpouring of the greenstone (No. 1), 
and the basalt (No. 12). Many of the intervening strata are 
charged with fine green ash, shewing that showers of ash con- 
tinued to be thrown out intermittently during the whole of the 
interval between the emission of the two lava-streams. And 
yet during that time, notwithstanding the igneous agencies— 
indeed, perhaps as a consequence of their activity—the condi- 
tions for the development of life seem to have been eminently 
favourable. Plant-remains are abundant, and the cases of the 
little Entomostracous Crustaceans occur in such multitudes as 
actually to form of themselves layers of stone. 
When I saw the stone in 1862 it was ready to fall out of the 
fireclay matrix; but to preserve it as far as might be for the 
inspection of geologists, my colleague, Dr. Young, and myself 
built it round with loose stones. Perhaps it is still tact, but 
I have not seen it since, and the frosts of every winter help to 
alter the face of the cliff. 
The whole of the district from which this illustration is taken 
affords admirable studies in trappean geology. The student 
will learn more of the details of paleeozoic voleanic phenomena 
from an attentive examination of that coast-line in the course 
of a single day, than he will be likely to gain from books alone 
during a week of hard reading. I am tempted to quote one or 
two additional sections from my note-book, but as these will 
shortly appear in greater detail in the ‘ Memoirs of the Geolo- 
gical Survey’ I refrain. The illustration given in this short 
paper is a fair sample of the kind of evidence which the Fife 
Coast affords of the abundant though local display of voleanic 
action during the earlier portions of the long Carboniferous 
period. 
