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Geological Sketch of the Excursion on 27 fh June 1894. 

 By Ralph Richardson, F.R.S.E., Gattonside House, 

 Melrose. (Plate VK.) 



The rocks of Cockburnspath were immortalised in the 

 annals of Geology by the visit to that coast of James Hutton, 

 Professor John Playfair, and Sir James Hall of Dunglass in 

 June 1788. This celebrated voyage is described by Hutton 

 in his "Theory of the Earth" (Part i., Chap, vi.,) and by 

 Playfair in his Obituary Notice of Hutton (Transactions of 

 the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Vol. v., 1805.) Since then, 

 the Cockburnspath coast, particularly at the Siccar Point, has 

 become classic ground to the geologist. 



From St. Abb's Head and Fast Castle northwards to the 

 Siccar Point, the coast-line consists of a splendid succession 

 of precipitous cliffs, formed by the truncated ends of contorted 

 Lower Silurian rocks ; whilst, at the Siccar Point, Old Red 

 Sandstones may be seen resting on vertical Silurian strata ; 

 but, from the Siccar Point on to Cockburnspath, the Silurian 

 rocks give place to red and white sandstones, red marls, 

 and occasional conglomerates of Upper Old Red Sandstone 

 age. A line passing a little to the south of the village of 

 Cockburnspath, and drawn to the sea, may be said to divide 

 this Old Red area from the Carboniferous rocks which 

 extend northwards to Dunbar. 



The excursion of the Club, on 27th June 1894, was entirely 

 over rocks of Calciferous Sandstone age, which are brought 

 down against the Upper Old Red Sandstones lying inland 

 by a fault which extends from the west of Oldhamstocks 

 in a northerly direction, past the village of Inner wick, to the 

 south of Dunbar. This Calciferous Sandstone area is bounded 

 on the south by the Upper Old Red Sandstones of Cock- 

 burnspath ; on the west by the fault referred to ; on the 

 north by Carboniferous Limestone rocks extending from Long 

 Craig to near Dunbar ; and on the east by the sea. 



Assembling on the cliffs near the Reed Point, the excursion 

 party proceeded along the coast to the Dunglass burn, over 

 white and yellow Sandstones with shale and ironstone, the beds 

 dipping slightly in an easterly direction. North of the 

 Dunglass burn the same strata, with calcareous beds, occurred, 

 but were nearly horizontal. A little stream, impregnate4 



