114 Lord Greenock on the Coal Formation of the 



The Campsie Hills particularly, in the neighbourhood of Kil- 

 syth, exhibit several magnificent sections illustrative of the pe- 

 riod and manner of their elevation, when viewed in the relations 

 they are there seen to bear to the carboniferous series. In the 

 Bathgate Hills, and in Stirlingshire, coal and limestone are 

 worked beneath columnar trap ; and, indeed, the whole country 

 occupied by the Scottish coal-measures displays more or less the 

 effects produced by the influence of such igneous hills, or of the 

 dykes connected with them, some of the former rising into moun- 

 tain masses, others forming detached hills, either lofty and 

 rugged, or scarcely elevated above the level of the surrounding 

 country ; while many of the latter do not penetrate to the sur- 

 face, but remain at greater or less depths beneath it, producing 

 much disturbance in the strata below, as well as many of the dis- 

 locations and elevations that are observed above ground, although 

 the cause itself may not be perceptible. 



When viewed collectively, a certain degree of parallelism may 

 be observed in the principal chains formed by the hills of this 

 nature, their general bearing being from the westward of south 

 to the eastward of north, which corresponds with the general 

 strike of the fossiliferous rocks ; and they sometimes appear to 

 assume a circular arrangement, encompassing valleys or basins of 

 greater or less extent. This, however, cannot be said to be the 

 case with respect to the smaller groups or insulated masses, many 

 of which seem to have been protruded through the strata at dif- 

 ferent times, and under varying circumstances, without any ap- 

 parent order or regularity ; and the dykes are found to proceed 

 in every direction from the principal masses, in some cases ap- 

 pearing to radiate from them as centres. 



Besides the interruption occasioned to the coal measures by 

 the elevation of the hills, by which the coal-fields are now sepa- 

 rated from each other, their connection has in many instances 

 been more or less cut off by rivers, estuaries, or portions of the 

 sea, the beds of which have been formed in these deposits. This 



