GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS NEAR EMBLETON 61 



irregular patches of the Upper Old Eed Sandstone, on the 

 higher beds of which are the basalt lavas of Kelso. As a vast 

 unconformity separates the Upper Old Eed from all the strata 

 older in the geological series, no one could be quite sure, with- 

 out actual proof, what rock might occur below that formation. 

 But in the neighbourhood of the Cheviot Hills occurs a 

 remnant of a great volcanic series, which lies unconformably 

 beneath the Upper Old Eed ; and this volcanic series, in its 

 turn, lies, also unconformably, upon any rock older than itself. 

 In the neighbourhood of Embleton the probability is that the 

 rock in question might prove to belong to some part of the 

 Silurian Eocks, properly so-called. 



On the other hand, it is as well to bear in mind the fact that 

 the highest rocks seen near Embleton are only a remnant of 

 the full thickness of the Carboniferous strata which formerly 

 covered this district. Long before the Magnesian Limestone 

 was formed, there extended over the whole of these parts a vast 

 thickness of Upper Carboniferous strata, which spread continu- 

 ously across what is now the upland tract of the Cheviots. These 

 strata, which contained countless millions of tons of good 

 coal, were entirely swept away from this part of the North of 

 England during the long period of disturbance, upheaval, and 

 denudation that followed the close of Carboniferous times, and 

 terminated, for the time being, with the advent of the varied 

 geographical conditions to which the Magnesian Limestone, 

 the Trias, the Ehsetic Eocks, the Lias, and the Oolites, were 

 severally due. The whole of these rocks also extended across 

 this neighbourhood, lying, as they did so, unconformably, at 

 their base, upon any rocks older than those which formed that 

 base. These Neozoic Eocks have come and have gone, and 

 have left here but little trace of their former existence, except 

 such as is presented by the red staining of the older sandstone, 

 and the dolomitisation of the limestones. 



An enormous amount of disturbance, upheaval, and denuda- 

 tion followed the close of the Carboniferous Epoch, all of which 

 had ceased by the time the New Eed Eocks were in process of 

 formation. These events must have occupied a time of incon- 

 ceivably vast extent, and we may regard the great hiatus which 

 has been left in the British geological record between these two 

 periods as almost entirely a blank, so far as strata and organic 



