WHITBERRY POINT. 93 



at one period were considered as indicating a precisely si- 

 milar mode of formation.* 



On examining the coast between Canty Bay and Sea 

 Cliff", several detached masses of red sandstone may be ob- 

 served underlying the tufaceous deposit, which, in some 

 places, forms mural cliffs of great thickness, and presents an 

 almost uniform horizontality of its beds. Near Scougal 

 the green trap- tufa is succeeded by one of a brick-red co- 

 lour, containing fragments of the same description as those 

 which occur in the green. After this an extensive sandy 

 beach covers up the subjacent rocks, and nothing can be 

 observed till we arrive at Whitberry Point- The trap- 

 rock which forms this headland has been described as ex- 

 hibiting appearances which were considered inconsistent 

 with a Plutonic origin, and, instead of being viewed as a 

 protrusion through the strata, its position was thought to 

 be more naturally explained, by precipitation from above ; 

 that it had sunk down upon the previously formed strata 

 when they were in a soft state. If there existed no si- 

 militude between trap-rocks and productions of modern 

 igneous formation, — if there were no changes effected on 

 the strata by the trap of Whitberry, such a deposition 

 from above might appear a legitimate inference ; but in 

 the present case it has been deduced from the observation 

 of one class of facts only. (Plate X. Fig. 4.) On the 

 northern side of the trap of Whitberry Point, which ranges 

 E. N.E. and W. S.W., strata of red sandstone and va- 



* A rock near St Andrew's, which is ; known hy the name of the Rock 

 and Spindle, affords a fine example of a basaltic vein traversing trap-tufa ; 

 when near the basalt, the tufa becomes indurated and the basalt more 

 compact than when at a distance from it. Vide Memoirs of Wernerian 

 Natural History Society, vol. ii. for a Memoir on the Mineralogy of the 

 Neighbourhood of St Andrew's, in Fife, by Dr Fleming. 



