54 REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1901 



who are fond of using as many names as possible for different 

 varieties of rocks. 



After the eruptions ceased the land continued to subside, 

 as already mentioned, and hence the old volcanoes eventually 

 became buried up, thousands of feet below sea level, and 

 beneath a vast pile of other and newer strata. Each of these 

 beds has some specially interesting feature of its own, but 

 consideration of space forbids that they should be more than 

 just referred to here. 



After a period of time, of inconceivable length, the Car- 

 boniferous rocks were subjected to great disturbances, were 

 folded and faulted, and then upheaved, and, finally, they 

 were wasted and worn away to a vast extent. Eventually, 

 these disturbed and denuded rocks were covered again — this 

 time by the desert-formed rocks of the New Eed, and, still 

 later, also by the succeeding Jurassic Eocks. Traces of the 

 New Red still exist in many parts of East Lothian, chiefly 

 in the form of stainings; but also as outliers near Dunbar. 



Other changes ensued, occupying, in the aggregate, an 

 interval of time amounting to a great many millions of years. 

 After that came the time when the present surface-features 

 had begun to be carved, by the prolonged action of rain 

 and rivers, out of the old rocks whose complicated history 

 has been just glanced at. The Forth and its tributaries had 

 gradually come into existence, and by slow degrees the rivers 

 had begun to assume somewhat of their present form. It 

 must be noted here that the North Sea has not long come 

 into existence as a marine area, for the land formerly stood 

 at a higher level than it does now. The area now occupied 

 by its waters was simply the valley of the Rhine, which then 

 flowed northward of the east side of what are now the British 

 Isles, and entered the Atlantic to the north-west of Scotland. 

 The Forth area under these conditions was that of a fresh- 

 water river. The main channel of the Forth lay at that 

 time, as it does at present, to the north of what is now The 

 Bass ; but, under these geographical conditions, an important 

 tributary flowed between The Bass and the mainland, and 

 joined its trunk stream much farther to the east. What 

 river now represents the modified descendant of that stream 

 must, for the present, remain a matter of conjecture. But, 



