364 
Field Club, that on the 15th of May, whilst passm ao 
the Ridgeway, several indications of trap were noticed • 0 
of these rocks was pointed out, coming to the surface 
form of a boss; thus giving evidence of a mighty volcan c 
movement, which took place at a remote period the bmestone, 
before horizontal, being then upheaved by this g re ^ P' 
truding mass, and thrown off on either side with considerable 
force Ahe lava at the same time bursting forth wherever 
vent could be found.” Such are popular ideas of trap rocks. 
In the same number of the Magazine (and, indeed, m the page 
facino- that from which I have quoted) we find that the 
Warwickshire Field Club, on the 16th of May, had been exa- 
mining “interesting sections of the lower coal-measures, with 
intrusive trap,” and that they had some interesting discussion, 
on Sg this once molten rock “in connection with coal 
shales,” which in some cases remained httle changed though 
“ in close proximity ” with the igneous rock. Let us tairly 
fancy a melted mass of stone at its white heat flowing over 
abed of combustible shale, and this same shale remaining little 
changed” ! In the same number of the Magazine still, we 
find fhat a paper was read to the Gtasgow Geological Society 
on trap rocks near Bowling, on the Clyde The writer 
speaking of Auchentorlie Glen, says, A little way up, on 
the lefUiand side, there is a cave-like recess under the trap, 
partly filled with water, which has been formed by the scooping 
out of a bed of coal and shale which crops out near the level 
of the stream. The trap, is here seen resting on the coa^ 
which dips to the south-west at an angle of twenty-six 
decrees and is almost two and a half feet m thickness. It is 
cSera% burnt in its upper part but some of it gives off a 
little flame. Between the coal and the trap there is a thin bed 
of clay-shale, and another bed of shale underlies the coal. 
Here then is a problem. Let us imagine a furnace large and 
hot enough to send out a stream of slag sufficient to form a 
mass lik ^ that which lies on this bed of coal. This stream, at 
its white heat, flows over this thm clay and combustible coal, 
yet the clay is not altered, and the coal is only oonmderab y 
burnt,” and not even changed enough to prevent its giving 
off a little flame ” ! Can anybody that ever saw molten slag 
coming in contact with shale and coal conceive of suck a 
miracle in nature as this ? It would be just as easy to ^believe 
that geologists are trap rocks themselves, as to believe that coal 
could lie under a stream of molten lava of; size. enough to form 
the Bowling hills, and yet be only “ considerably burnt. Yet 
Professor Ramsay himself, in his inaugural address to the 
Geological Section of the British Association, refers to the car- 
