232 Mr. George Tate on the Fame Islands. 



A thin bed of limestone, from which the rolled blocks 

 have been derived that are piled up along the shore of the 

 Wedom and Noxes. 



White fine-grained sandstone, which is seen near to the 

 Noxes when the tide is low. 

 These beds appear to lie in a hollow of the basalt ; for at the 

 Fame the dip is along with the basalt N.E. by E., but at the 

 Noxes the sandstone dips westward. 



The other group of stratified rocks, which occupy a depression 

 in the basalt southward of Fosseland, is of a more interesting- 

 character, for the organic remains are more varied and abundant, 

 and the section, although partly obscured by overlying loose 

 stones, is covered only by the highest spring tides. The position 

 of these rocks is peculiar : they lie upon basalt which has a cliff- 

 face 20 feet high towards the south, and they abut against 

 another basaltic cliff which rises 20 feet higher; while around, 

 at a greater or less distance, are basaltic rocks. 



Of these stratified beds there are about 90 feet, and their 

 succession, as far as I could determine, in an ascending scries is 

 as follows : — 



Indurated sandstone immediately above the basalt ; 

 Arenaceous calcareous shale much indurated and fossili- 

 ferous ; 



Chert or metamorphic shale with a conchoidal fracture, 

 sharp edges, and very hard, also fossiliferous. 



Limestone very much altered, and varying in character; 

 eherty, compact and dark in one part, buff-coloured and 

 magnesian in another, and in others red and crystalline. 



Indurated or eherty beds abutting against the basalt, 

 and perpendicular in position. 

 The general direction of the group is from N.W. to S.E., 

 and the dip is very considerable, though irregular, being in 

 one part with the basalt E.N.E. 20°, and in another perpen- 

 dicular. These beds present a striking instance of metamorphic 

 action from basalt, and a distinct proof of the igneous origin of 

 that rock. The limestones are indurated and crystalline ; and 

 the shales, which in ordinary localities are soft and earthy, are 

 here converted into chert and jasper. They have been torn from 

 the mass with which they were originally connected, lifted up, 

 altered in structure, and squeezed into their present position by 

 the outburst of igneous rocks. 



Fossils are not observable in the sandstone or limestone ; but 

 in the eherty shale beds, notwithstanding their metamorphism, 

 several organisms are sufficiently well preserved to admit of de- 

 termination. The most interesting of these remains are two 

 entire specimens of Trilobites, with the head, body and tail con- 

 nected. Detached parts of this curious animal I have frequently 



