MR MILNE ON THE MID-LOTHIAN AND EAST-LOTHIAN COAL-FIELDS. 319 



July 1837, were dug out of the Carse clay at Stirling, between ten and eleven 

 feet beneath the surface of it. 



5. Beds of fine sand form the next deposit in the ascending series. 



The sand is in general very pure, that is to say, free from admixture with 

 clay. In external appearance it is white, and resembles strongly sea-sand. It 

 is laminated, the laminae being generally not horizontal, but forming angles vary- 

 ing as much as 10° or 15° from the horizon. 



The sand frequently contains gravel, both in single pebbles, and in thin 

 patches or layers. I have never seen any, so large as a cocoa-nut. They are all 

 water- worn. At Harden Green, there is a bed of this sand, about three feet thick, 

 lying on the stony clay, and in it I found a fragment of flesh-coloured felspar, 

 derived apparently from the Pentland Hills. Sometimes there are fragments of 

 shale and coal. A piece of coal, about half the size of my fist, I took out of a 

 sand-pit between New Hailes and Fisherrow. In the same sand-pit, there were 

 numerous particles of coally matter between the laminae. 



To this deposit belong the beds of sand and mud which have been described 

 as occurring at Barley dean — about 500 feet above the sea. At Blackshiels (about 

 one-fourth mile north from the inn, on the Edinburgh road), similar deposits are 

 visible. Their height above the sea at this last-mentioned spot is about 700 feet. 



To this particular deposit, I think, belong those immense accumulations of 

 sand which lie to the north of Edinburgh. Most of those whom I now address, 

 must have frequently seen the deep sand-pits near Inverleith Place, St Mary's 

 Chm-ch, Claremont Crescent, the Old Botanic Garden, and on the south side of 

 the Horticultural Garden. These sand-pits shew beds of sand exceeding thkty 

 feet in thickness at least, and how much more I do not know. In this part of the 

 district, there appear to be two or three separate banks of sand. One of them 

 runs westward from the Old Botanic Garden towards St Mary's Church through 

 the nursery gardens. At the east end of this bank, viz. near Leith Walk, the 

 laminae in it rise at a small angle to the west. At the other end, viz. near St 

 Mary's Church, the layers rise gently towards the east. The laminae are in some 

 places made very distinct, by particles of coal or shale lying betwixt them. 



Another of these sandbanks runs through Inverleith Terrace, and across the 

 Water of Leith to Redbraes Villa, where it was formerly extensively wrought. A 

 third runs still farther to the north of the Water of Leith, and has been lately cut 

 through for the Edinburgh and Newhaven Railway. It there presents a section 

 of about forty feet in depth. The layers of sand form arches, rising toward the 

 top of the bank, and forming on the north side an angle of 40° with the horizon.* 

 This bank (as well as the others) runs in a direction nearly E. and W., and may be 



* A section of this bank is given on page 72 hereof, where there is a description of the upper de- 

 posit of small gravel which covers the sand. 



