BY THE REV. W. FEATHERSTONHAUGH, M.A. 311 
would appear that the volcanic eruptions which broke up the 
solid crust, ejected and hurled wide over the face of the country 
masses of molten matter, either basalt, or metal, or vitrified 
portions of the broken sandstone strata. 
Scattered over the surface of the moor, and turned up in 
numbers wherever the plough disturbs the peaty soil, occur what 
are locally know as “bastard whins,” which are, in fact, not 
basalt at all, but vitrified masses of sandstone, rounded at the 
edges, and compacted to extreme hardness by the action of 
heat, but still bearing the impress of numerous vegetable 
forms. 
On the top of the flag stone quarry, eighteen inches below 
the surface, and resting on the rubbly sandstone, was found, 
on one occasion, a rounded mass of pure sulphuret of lead, of 
two stones weight, unconnected with any neighbouring vein, 
and 150 feet above where ore is known to run. 
In the quarry which furnishes the ashlar stone, some parts 
are much broken up and injured by the occurrence of what are 
called by the workmen, ‘‘robins.” These ‘‘robins” are round 
masses of soft partially coherent sandstone, of a dull red colour, 
disposed in concentric layers, with a nucleus consisting inva- 
riably here, of a nodule of basalt, pure hard blue whin. These 
nodules vary in size from a few ounces, to a ton in weight, and 
upwards; and the ‘“robins” occur, more or less frequently, from 
within ten feet of the surface, the commencement of the solid 
stone, down to the lowest point to which the quarry has yet 
been worked, about forty feet. The largest masses seem to lie 
lowest down; and the stone in this neighbourhood is much 
broken up, and incapable of yielding blocks of useful size. 
That these different forms of vitrified matter, basalt, lead- 
ore, and sandstone, widely scattered over the country, are 
evidences of extensive volcanic action and eruption to the 
surface, I think is plain; and I offer these few notes as con- 
tributions to the data of some more competent investigator of 
the changes of our earth, in times remotely past. 
EDMONDBYERS, November, 1862. 
