Mr. WiTHAM on the Red Sandstones of Berivkkshire. 175 



which are already known, by giving us a larger insight into the univer- 

 sal harmony of nature," I shall proceed. 



It has long been matter of doubt and dispute amongst many able 

 Continental, as well as British, Geologists, whether the Red Sandstone, 

 found at and near the mouth of the river Tweed, belongs to the old or 

 new Red Sandstone series. My early observations, I must confess, 

 biased me much in favour of the latter, and this opinion was by no means 

 shaken by the repeated examinations I had made in Caithness, Ross- 

 shire, Angus-shire, Kincardineshire, Dumfries-shire, and the North of 

 England, where the undoubted new Red Sandstone is acknowledged to 

 exist. Why, therefore, when the external characters of the Tweed and 

 Berwickshire deposits are so similar to those above named, any doubt 

 can be entertained, I shall endeavour by the following remarks to ex- 

 plain. 



Although in these observations I wish to confine myself as much as 

 possible within the limits of Berwickshire, yet in order to make the 

 point, I wish to establish, more clear and intelligible, I trust, I may be 

 excused introducing a few remarks made by my friend Mr. Francis 

 FoRSTER, upon a part of the northern coast of Northumberland. 



" At Fenwick, nine miles and a half south of Bei'wick, the Carboni- 

 ferous Limestone appears, and is quarried to considerable extent. It is 

 accompanied by a bed of Red Sandstone, and the latter is brought up 

 by a fault, about half a mile south of Fenham, and its vicinity indicat- 

 ed by the red braes occasionally rising from the sand, for two miles 

 further south. Again, at North Sunderland, above the 20-feet Lime- 

 stone (so extensively quarried and sent to all parts of Scotland), I founds* 

 and was much struck with, this Red Sandstone. Its position, howevePr 

 immediately above, and conformable to, a bed of Carboniferous Limcj 

 stone, 20 feet thick, with a six-feet seam of Coal, 18 fathoms below it, 

 completely settled the point as to the order to which it belongs. /See 

 Figs. 1 and 2. 



VOL. I. A a 



