TRAP ROCKS OF WEST LOTHIAN. 105 



little appears worthy of a detailed description, and as the 

 country is covered to a great extent with peat and allu- 

 vial matter, and is traversed by comparatively few large 

 streams, satisfactory junctions of the igneous with the aque- 

 ous rocks are of unfrequent occurrence. In regard to the 

 relative distribution of these rocks the greatest disorder 

 exists, small deposits of the coal series appearing in many 

 places completely isolated and enveloped in the ignigenous 

 formations. The position of the strata is also of the most 

 irregular description, since in one part they are found dip- 

 ping to one point, and in another are disposed in the reverse, 

 or lying in an apparently unaltered and horizontal state ; 

 in general, however, the angle of their inclination is, with 

 few exceptions, far from high ; a circumstance which can 

 perhaps only be explained by supposing the greater part 

 of the augitic rocks of this district, as a series of sheets of 

 trap overlying the surfaces of the strata and at a distance 

 from the eruptive openings. In regard to the points which 

 may have been those of greatest disturbance, there are no 

 certain indications. The hills which range from Bathgate 

 to Borrowstownness, the Riccarton Hills, and the trap depo- 

 sits of Corstorphin, Craigiehall Hill, and Mons, may, how- 

 ever, be considered with some probability as the more im- 

 mediate centres of the trap eruptions. In describing the 

 modes of connection of the trap of West Lothian with the 

 strata, we will notice first the Bathgate Hills, and conclude 

 with a detail of any remarkable phenomena observable at 

 other points. 



At the most southern part of this range of trap hills 

 near the village of Kirkton, the quarrying of the limestone 

 which forms a considerable portion of this district, has 

 exposed several interesting phenomena in regard to its re- 

 lations to the trap rocks. The general inclination of the 



