40 Anniversary Address. 



series of great contortions and arches. Obviously the strata 

 must have been pressed laterally ; and Sir James Hall shewed 

 how similar foldings would be given to layers of clay placed 

 under a weight, when pressed at opposite ends. Still the 

 question remains, what was the power which exercised this 

 pressure ? Some Geologists, regarding the effects as too 

 great to have been produced by the action of agencies now 

 working, refer them to a supposed contraction of the earth at 

 a remote era ; but this is a mere hypothesis, and not a 

 generalisation — a hypothesis to which indeed there is no 

 necessity to resort here, for when all the various igneous rocks 

 intruded amongst the Greywacke beds are fairly reckoned up, 

 they become the evidences of power equal to the elevation and 

 contortion of the Berwick strata. There is the great mass of 

 the Porphyry of the Cheviot, which has been thrown up since 

 the deposition of the Greywacke beds, and which is seen in 

 connection with them in Northumberland and Roxburghshire ; 

 there are the Syenites and Granites of Cockburnslaw, Sten- 

 shiel Hill, and Fassney, the Porphyries of Lamberton, St. 

 Abb's Head, Hallidown, Coldingham Law, and Bemerside ; 

 and there are many intruded dikes over the formation, several 

 of which are seen on the banks of Blackadder. When we add 

 to this, that the igneous rocks visible on the surface are in 

 many cases but the narrow terminal points of broader masses 

 beneath, we have indications of volcanic power, capable both 

 of lifting up the Greywake strata, and of contorting them by 

 the intrusion of masses which, exerting both an upward and 

 lateral pressure, would squeeze yielding beds into a series of 

 great Arches. 



" After dinner the Members proposed at the meeting were 

 elected. Mr. William Sharswood, of Philadelphia, was pro- 

 posed by Mr. Tate, and seconded by Mr. Home. Dr. Hood 

 read a paper describing a Cave in the Sea Cliff, between 

 Eyemouth and Burnmouth ; and Mr Tate some notices of the 

 Geology and Archaeology of the neighbourhood of Yetholm, 

 and the northern part of the Cheviots. 



" Another paper was read, contributed by the Rev. Vs'illiam 

 Procter, A.M., on the Doddington Wells. The paper states 



