APPEARANCE OF FOSSILS. 
135 
on its surface^ without being struck with 
the benevolence and wisdom manifest in 
the design. 
The description given by the accomplished 
authors of the Fossil Flora of Great Britain, 
of the mode in which vegetable fossils oc¬ 
cur in the lower coal beds near Edinburgh, 
conveys a forcible impression of the scenery 
of these silent forests. 
The fossils of Burdie house occur in a 
bed of limestone twenty-seven feet thick, 
remarkably compact, uncrystalline, and uni¬ 
form throughout; the geological position of 
this limestone is low down, probably very 
near the base of the carboniferous groupe 
of rocks ; it is highly inclined, dipping with 
its immediately associated beds at an angle of 
23° in a S.E. direction from the trap of the 
Pentland Hills, the protrusion of which has 
evidently throwm them into the position 
they now hold. 
The vegetable remains occur in great 
profusion, and are to be found in every part 
of the limestone from top to bottom ; and 
* Fossil Flora, ii. p. 23. 
