30 GEOLOGY OF THE LOTHIANS. 



of their existence. In the Transition rocks there is only one 

 locality in which organic relics have been discovered ; we 

 refer to the contents of a limestone connected with this 

 series which occurs at the Crook Inn, in Peebles- shire. The 

 fact that well marked vegetable remains are not to be ob- 

 served in strata older than the white sandstone series, or 

 in any of the alternating groups of red sandstone, is well 

 exemplified in that part of the coast which extends from 

 Redheugh in Berwickshire to Aberlady in East-Lothian. 

 On examining this portion of the country, we pass over in 

 succession examples of each of those stratified deposits 

 which occur in the southern division of Scotland. After 

 leaving the Transition rocks and the red sandstone which 

 rest upon them, we, near the Cove, meet with the carboni- 

 ferous strata, and the mountain limestone, and then, for the 

 first time, observe fossil vegetable remains. Near Dunbar, the 

 white sandstone is succeeded by a group of red sandstone 

 strata, which is as destitute of any fossil relics as that 

 which rests immediately on the older rocks. Near Goo- 

 Ian, the coal strata again appear, and, with them, vegetable 

 fossils. From the non-occurrence of fossil vegetables in 

 the red sandstone, however, the conclusion can never be 

 drawn that these sandstones are of a formation anterior 

 to the creation of plants. It is, however, indicated, that 

 there were, in the formation of the red sandstones, causes 

 which did not allow the deposition of vegetables. The 

 rocks from which they are derived may not have been 

 covered with a vegetation so luxuriant as those, which, on 

 decomposition, formed the white sandstone, or their depo- 

 sition may have been attended with unknown actions, ade- 

 quate for the destruction of such remains. Throughout 

 the Lothian district the vegetable features of the strata ob- 

 serve the same general appearance, and are indiscrimi- 

 nately scattered through the several strata of the white 



