CHAP. XXXI 
the vents of eastern fife 
71 
Though interstratified volcanic rocks occur in the Carboniferous system 
of the East of Fife, no connection has been traced between them and any ot 
the vents now referred to. While none of these vents can be proved to be oi 
Carboniferous age, it is of course possible that such may be the true date of 
some of them. Others, nevertheless, and probably much the largest number, 
judged from the data just given, may be regarded as probably post-Car bon- 
iferous. Those which happen to rise through the uppermost Coal-measures 
do not appear to be distinguishable by any essential characters from those 
which pierce indifferently the Carboniferous Limestone series and Calciferous 
Sandstones of the East of Fife. They seem to be all one connected aggre- 
gate, resembling each other alike in their external characters, internal 
structure and component materials, and the limit of their age must e 
determined by the geological horizon of the youngest formation which ey 
traverse. By this process of reasoning I reach the conclusion that this 
remarkable series of old volcanoes in the East of Scotland not improbably 
dates from the same time as that of Ayrshire and Nitlisdale, already 
described. > 
Some idea of the importance and interest of the volcanic area oi Eastern 
Fife may be gathered from the fact that in a space of about / 0 square mi es 
no fewer than 60 necks may be counted, and others are probably concealed 
below the drift-deposits which cover so much of the interior of the cc nmtry^ 
The area of this remarkable display extends from St. Andrews Bay and the 
Yale of the Eden southwards to the coast of the Firth of Forth between 
Lundin Links and St. Monans. All over the inland tract the necks form 
more or less marked eminences, of which the largest are conspicuous land- 
marks from the southern side of the Firth. But the distinguishing 
characteristic of the area is the display of the necks along the coast, where, 
in a series of natural dissections, their form, composition, internal structure 
and relations to the surrounding rocks have been laid open in such clearness 
and variety as have been met with in the volcanic records of no other geo 
logical period within the compass of these islands. As this district t us 
