Anniversary Address. ' 19 



the latter are torn into fragments, displaced and contorted in 

 the most remarkable way, showing evidence of the mechanical 

 effect of the eruptive rock. In some places a mass of basalt 

 appears intruded among the limestone and sandstone strata, 

 these being bent over it, while at other places the basalt 

 overlies the strata or is inserted between them. It is a curi- 

 ous fact that when basalt and limestone come in contact, 

 each seems to be acted on by the other, and to partake to a 

 certain extent of the nature of the other — the basalt near the 

 place of contact becoming to a certain extent calcareous. A 

 little to the south of our shelter is a beautiful basaltic dyke 

 running E. 50 N. to W. 50 S., nearly perpendicular, four feet 

 broad, and rising like an artificial wall above the adjoining 

 strata. It cannot be traced into the whin-sill, but it illustrates 

 what has been called the geographical relation of such dykes 

 to this sill. Above us and beneath our feet, sandstones, lime- 

 stones, shales, and coal-seams, alternate with each other, and 

 many of them are fossiliferous. The shale in particular is 

 filled with fossils, and the weather and tide washing away the 

 softer matrix leaves the fossils standing in high relief. This 

 was no day for breaking them out ; but there were observed, 

 among others more common, the following, which were first 

 observed here by our secretary, Mr Tate: — the Trilobite 

 Griffithides Farnensis, the Annelids Sahella antiqua, Serpu- 

 lites carhonariuSy Crassopodia EmUetonia, Eione monili- 

 formis, the Echinoderm Archceocidaris Urii, the Mollusks 

 Bellerophon decussatus, Loxonema rugifera and sulculosa. 

 Area cancellata, Leptodomus costellatus, Pteronites persid- 

 catus, Amculq-pecten ccelatus, Amusium deornatum, &c. 



Proceeding southwards, scrambling over rolled masses of 

 limestone and basalt, the party examined the section exposed 

 in the cliffs, and besides a great dislocation opposite the vil- 

 lage of Howick, which throws up the strata on the north side 

 several hundred feet above those on the south side of it, Mr 

 Tate pointed out many smaller dislocations. He stated that 

 in consequence of such faults the same beds appear along the 

 coast at Beadnell, at North Sunderland, and at Scremerston, 



