Fingal and East Coast. 57 



The estuary of the Scamander, wliicli Is tortuous, and 

 of considerable width for some miles inland, is bounded 

 at every turn of its course by hills consisting of 

 arenaceous and clayey beds and schists of the transition 

 era. These clay-slate hills, separated near the coast by 

 steep ravines of great depth, converge and rise in alti- 

 tude in a west and west south west direction, until they 

 merge in the high land which skirts and supports 

 Mount Nicholas. 



Where the eruptive rock of Mount Nicholas abuts at 

 its eastern extreme upon the transition hills, there is 

 upon the latter, at an elevation of 1600 or 1700 feet 

 above the sea, palaeozoic rocks abounding in Spiriferce, 

 &c., which relatively ought to underlie the coal series; 

 suggesting the probability of these fossiliferous strata 

 having been deposited during a period of repose preced- 

 ing the elevation of the clay-slate into hills, and when 

 as yet the schistose beds were far from having attained 

 their present nearly vertical condition. 



High lands must have existed in the neighbourhood 

 at the time of the deposiiion of the older palaeozoic and 

 carboniferous rocks, from which the material of these, 

 both mineral and vegetable, was obtained. The inclina- 

 tion of 12° to 15°, generally characteristic of these rocks, 

 must have been acquired during the ultimate upheaval of 

 the clay-slate to its existing level. The elevation and 

 alterations in dip of the clay-slate itself appear to have 

 been effected in every instance through the instrument- 

 ality of granite. The partial upheavals and displacements 

 in the palaeozoic and carboniferous measures are, 

 without doubt, attributable chiefly to the agency of 

 greenstone. 



The continuous valley of the Break-o'-day and South 

 Esk owes its origin and form quite as much to aqueous 

 denudation as to the process of elevation around. 



