^04 The Rev. W. Conybeare on 



point hold and lofty precipices of that rock take place of the chalk 

 and red sandstone in the higher region, and, stretching to the north, 

 constitute the well-known promontory of Fairhead, which bounds 

 Murloch bay on that side. 



It Is greatly to be regretted, that the convulsions of which this 

 bay appears to have been the theatre, having covered the regular 

 strata with shattered fragments and piles of ruin, heaped together 

 in the wildest confusion, have thrown an impenetrable obscurity 

 over its structure, which, from the narrow space in which so many 

 formations are successively exhibited, must be regarded as more 

 important than that of any other point on this coast. 



From this cause it is impossible to ascertain the exact relations 

 of the greenstone at this point with the chalk and red sand. The 

 general appearance is, that the mass of greenstone abuts abruptly 

 against that of the sandstone, both being placed at the same level. 

 It has been said that the greenstone and sandstone are here to be 

 observed, alternating with each other. (See notes to the poem of 

 the Giant's Causeway, by Mr. Drummond.) But it may be 

 questioned whether this representation is not founded on a hasty 

 view of some of the subsided masses above mentioned. The 

 greenstone, where it first appears, exhibits two columnar strata, 

 separated by a bed of amorphous greenstone. 



Near the point where the greenstone is lost, we observed the 

 traces of adits formerly driven into the sandstone in search of coal, 

 beds of which appear to occur among the lower members of the 

 sandstone formation. The position of one of these adits is such as 

 to afford some countenance to the supposition, that the greenstone 

 and sandstone here alternate ; and, since a thin horizontal bed of 

 trap certainly does occur interstratlfied with the coal measures on 

 the other side of Fairhead, such an opinion cannot be rejected with- 

 out further examination. 



