Anniversary Address. 39 



Building is chiefly quadrangular, but there are remains of a 

 round tower on the north-west comer, and another round 

 tower is seen on the south-east corner, resting on corbels, and 

 projecting over the square ground storey. A small recess in 

 one of the rooms has a simple O. Gf. arch of an early style, 

 which, with the character of the towers, would refer the erec- 

 tion of the Castle to the fourteenth century. 



" More remarkable than the Castle, are the rocks which 

 tower above it. The coast here is desolate enough — wild 

 crags, rugged and bare, rise precipitously to heights varying 

 from 100 to 300 feet ; here and there are grotesque, projecting, 

 and isolated masses and caverns hollowed out by the sea, but 

 an especial interest is given to the scene by the marvellous 

 contortions of the strata which form the lofty cliffs. 



" These strata are Greywacke, the upper Cambrian formation 

 of Sedgwick, and lower Silurian of Murchison. They form, 

 excepting where igneous rocks are intruded, the coast from 

 Siccar point to Burnmouth, and run across the country in a 

 westerly direction, having an average width of about ten miles. 

 Doubtless these strata are bent and contorted over the whole 

 district, but the undulations are best observed along the coast, 

 where an extensive cross section is exposed. These contor- 

 tions consist of great curvatures which are alternately concave 

 and convex upwards, those of the largest size reaching from 

 the top to the bottom of the cliff*. Sir James Hall observed 

 sixteen distinct bendings in the course of about six miles. 

 Immediately opposite to Fast Castle, one of these great arches 

 occurs, extending to the top of the cliff" where the upper 

 portion of the arch is broken through ; to the south of this 

 folding, the strata are standing perpendicular, or crushed and 

 bent over. 



" In presence of impressive phenomena, well calculated to 

 excite curiosity, and which have supplied materials for the 

 speculations of Hutton, Playfair and Hall, and of Sedgwick, 

 Murchison and Lyell, we could not help inquiring into the 

 cause, which had first raised mud, deposited originally as 

 horizontal beds at the bottom of the sea, into a highly inclined 

 and perpendicular position, and then squeezed them into a 



