369 
of Edinburgh, Session 1876 - 77 . 
with the sea was quite inadmissible. In the first place, the 
locality is three miles from the nearest part of the sea-coast, with 
a ridge of high ground intervening. In the second place, between it 
and the sea-margin lie the numerous deep pits of the Borrowstoun- 
ness and Kinneil coal-fields, which, it may be supposed, must pre- 
vent at least any superficial w r ater-communication. And in the third 
place, the proportions of the various salts contained in the water 
are quite different from those which would have resulted from the 
mere access of ordinary sea- water. The salts can only have been 
derived from the subterranean rocks traversed by the water. 
An acquaintance with the geology of the district enables me to 
recognise the various kinds of “ whinstone ” found in the bore. 
They are successive beds of the dull green and brown, usually more 
or less decomposed, dolerites (diabases) forming the long volcanic 
range between Bathgate and the sea, and which were poured out 
partly as submarine and partly as, subaerial lavas during the de- 
position of the Carboniferous Limestone, or Lower Coal series of 
Linlithgowshire. Occasional bands <jf green and red tuff mark in- 
tervals between the lava-flows. Since the water from the superfi- 
cial gravels was of the usual potable quality there can be no doubt 
that the saline impregnation comes from the underlying rocks. 
So far as I am aware, the first detection of soda as a chemical 
constituent of rocks was made by Dr Kobert Kennedy, and an- 
nounced to this Society as far back as December 1798. He 
analysed the specimens of whinstone employed by Sir James Hall 
in his classical experiments upon the fusibility of whinstone and 
lava, and found the constant presence of soda to the extent of four 
or five per cent., with one per cent, of muriatic acid. He further 
examined pieces of sandstone from the neighbourhood of Edinburgh 
and elsewhere, with the invariable result of detecting an appreciable 
quantity of common salt in them. Since the early date of his 
researches chloride of sodium has been found very widely diffused 
among the minerals and rocks of the earth’s crust. 
There seems to be three chief sources from which rocks derive 
their chloride of sodium: — 1. Bain; 2. The evaporated water of old 
salt lakes and inland seas; 3. Volcanic sublimations. 
1, Rain . — The researches of Dr Angus Smith * into the compo- 
* See his Air and Rain . 
