36S 



MINERALOGY OF THE REDHEAD. 



junction of the two formations at Ardrossan Har- 

 bour, where the strata of red sandstone stretch 

 nearly north and south, and dip to the east at 

 an angle of about 50°. Over these strata of 

 red sandstone, are deposited beds of white- 

 coloured sandstone, slate- clay, limestone, slate- 

 coal, clay- ironstone, and greenstone. These are 

 unconformable, as they stretch from east to 

 "west, and dip to the south. Near the line of 

 junction, the newer strata are much inclined, but 

 they approach nearer to the horizontal position, 

 as they recede from the red sandstone^. 



The coaUfield of the Forth, seems to rest in a 

 cavity of the red sandstone, with which it is sur- 

 rounded. On the north, it terminates at the red 

 sandstone district of Fifeshire, and on the south, 

 it is cut off by the same rock at Tranent ; the red 

 sandstone there appearing, stretching eastwards 

 by Haddington and Dunbar, westwards to the 

 Pentland Hills, and south to the transition coun- 

 try of the Lammermuir, where it ceases. Be- 



* In the red sandstone, no beds of coal have hitherto been 

 discovered in the middle districts of Scotland. Mr Mackenzie, 

 in his Mineralogy of the Ochil Hills, (Mem. Wern. Soc. vol. ii. 

 p. 8.) mentions a bed of coal, as occurring under a red sand- 

 stone, near the King's Seat ; but this sandstone, I have reason 

 to^believe, is a member of the regular coal-field, although si- 

 tuated at the base of the Ochils. 



