172 Mr. With AM on the Red Sandstone oj" Berwickshire. 



No. XIX. On the Red Sandstones of Berwickshire, particularly those 

 at the mouth of the River Tweed. By Henry Witham, of Lartington, 

 Esq., F. G. S., &c. 



Read, September 20, 1830. 



In reading over the able address delivered by the President, Professor 

 Sedgwick, to the Geological Stfciety of London, on the 19th of 

 February last, I observed the following passage : — "The association of the 

 Coal and Mountain Limestone of Northumberland has not been well 

 explained. The great corresponding deposits of Cumberland are unde- 

 scribed, nor does it appear in our published works, that Coal is found 

 alternating in the north of England, with all parts of the Mountain 

 Limestone group : and that beds of Coal are worked in several places, 

 resting upon the Transition Slates, and surmounted by the whole Lime- 

 stone series." Being at all times anxious to promote the views of the 

 distinguished and enlightened President, of our parent Society, I have 

 with much pleasure, devoted a considerable portion of my time to the 

 examination of many deposits in Berwickshire ; but in particular that 

 of its Red Sandstones, which may probably throw some light upon a 

 group of rocks, with which they were supposed to have little or no con- 

 nection. 



I feel some difficulty in entering on the task I am about to under- 

 take, as by the following observations, I may be probably found to en- 

 tertain views altogether different from those, who have written and 

 expressed their opinions upon these Red Sandstones, but as our worthy 

 President affirms in the same address, " we have nothing to fear from 

 the results of our enquiries, provided they be followed by the laborious 

 but secure road of honest induction ; in this way we may rest assured 

 we shall never arrive at conclusions opposed to any truth, nay rather, 

 that new discoveries will ever lend support and illustration to things 



