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XVL On the Mid-Lothian and East-Lothian Coal-Fields. By David Milne, Esq. 



Read 19th February, 6th March, and 7th May, 1838. 



I AM not aware of any account having been published of the Coal-fields in 

 East and Mid Lothian, or of any attempt to institute a geological survey of the 

 country in which they are situated. Sinclair, the author of a well known work 

 intituled " Satan's Invisible World" published also in 1672 a treatise on Hy- 

 drostatics, in which he takes notice of the Prestongrange coals, and of the whin- 

 stone-dike that intersects them. Williams, in his " Mineral Kingdom'' (pub- 

 lished) in 1810, gives some information regarding the du-ection of the Gilmer- 

 ton and Loanhead coal-seams. But the information contained in both these works, 

 even respecting the coal-strata, — which alone they professed to treat of, is ex- 

 tremely vague, and generally very erroneous. Dr Hibbert was the first geologist 

 who with a scientific eye entered on the district, in order to describe with fulness 

 and accuracy any of its rocks. His discovery of the Saurian remains in the lime- 

 stone-quarries of Burdiehouse, led him to a minute inspection of the strata in 

 which they were imbedded, and to a consideration of the relative position of 

 these particular strata in the Mid-Lothian coal-field. The paper which he read 

 to the Royal Society on this subject has been published in their Transactions, and 

 it contains a good deal of valuable information in regard to the character and po- 

 sition of the rocks which are in the immediate neighbourhood of Burdiehouse. 



It would have been most desirable, that this eminent geologist and intelligent 

 observer, instead of confining his views to a small portion of the field, had extend- 

 ed his survey over the whole of it. It might have suggested new views to him, 

 even with reference to the favourite subject to which he devoted his attention. 

 He would also, I am sure, have drawn up an account of much practical A^alue, 

 and general interest. Coal i^roprietors and lessees would have been benefited, by 

 having had explained to them the connection of the edge seams and flat seams, 

 and of having had unravelled the mystery and confusion arising from the innume- 

 rable slips, troubles, hitches, and dykes, which intersect and reticulate their coal- 

 fields. I need hardly add, that such an extended survey, by that distinguished 

 geologist, would have been no less important to science ; for if I know any thing at 

 all of the district I am now about to describe, sure I am that he would have found 

 and shewn, that remarkable and celebrated as this part of the island is on ac- 

 count of its unstratified rocks, and their effects on the adjoining strata, it is no 



