432 PKOCEEDIN^GS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [June 18, 



micaceous, and somewhat indurated: the lithological character so 

 closely resembles that of some portions of the Forfarshire sandstones, 

 and so little that of the upper red sandstones of Fife, that, although 

 unable to detect any organic remains, I have no hesitation in regarding 

 them as a portion of the lower formations, i.e. the Forfarshire series : 

 their dip is towards the south and a little east, at an angle of about 

 25°, which more nearly coincides with that of the Park-lull flagstones 

 than with that of the upper portions of the series ; but in no place in 

 this Bay are the upper and lower beds found in contact. A conglo- 

 merate,having an indurated matrix, is found near Balmerino Harbour; 

 but it shows no features sufficiently marked to indicate its alliance to 

 either the great lower conglomerate of Forfar or the upper of the Lady 

 Burn at Cupar. Some indurated shales are also thrown up here 

 amongst the trap and this conglomerate ; and, a little to the west, 

 patches of conglomerate and red sandstone are found, in the Birk- 

 hill plantations, but nowhere affording satisfactory evidence of 

 position. 



In the great conglomerate so largely developed in Forfarshire, the 

 pebbles, although consisting of many varieties of porphyry, quartz, 

 jasper, and such like, are aU much water- worn and well rounded, 

 while the matrix, sometimes soft and friable, sometimes indurated, 

 and sometimes trappean, is almost always highly siliceous or argil- 

 laceous, seldom or never calcareous. In the overlying unconformable 

 conglomerate at White Ness, composed mostly of disintegrated por- 

 tions of the lower rocks, the general character of the pebbles is similar 

 to that of those in the older formation. "With these, however, are 

 included subangular fragments of the older red sandstones and con- 

 glomerates, while some portions of the matrix are highly calcareous ; 

 indeed, occasionally the cementing material is altogether composed of 

 calcspar. In its lithological character and structure, the Fife con- 

 glomerate, as exposed in the Lady Burn and elsewhere, much more 

 nearly resembles the latter than the former ; there subangular frag- 

 ments of red sandstones are mixed up with the pebbles, and in some 

 strata they are imbedded in a matrix almost entirely composed of 

 coarse calcareous matter. 



No direct evidence is thus afforded in the Old Eed Sandstones of 

 Fifeshire as to the relative position of the upper and lower members 

 of these formations. No doubt can exist as to the sequence and 

 conformability of the upper series and the overlying Coal-formation ; 

 but they are so completely cut off from the lower formations, that, 

 although the direction and angle of their dip seem slightly different 

 from that of the lower series, yet these latter occur in patches so 

 isolated and so much broken up by the trap-rocks, that little reliance 

 can be placed upon their observed inclination and relative position. 

 The unconformability of the White Ness conglomerate to the under- 

 lying sandstones and conglomerates of Forfarshire cannot for a 

 moment be doubted ; and the many characters in common between 

 it and that in the Lady Burn at Cupar are so marked, that I have 

 little hesitation in stating my conviction that they both belong to the 

 same formation, — that hence the Whiteness conglomerate forms part 



