The geology of the neighbourhood of Edinburgh : (map 32) / by H.H. Howell and Archibald Geikie ; appendix and lists of fossils by J.W. Salter.

Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The geology of the neighbourhood of Edinburgh : (map 32) / by H.H. Howell and Archibald Geikie ; appendix and lists of fossils by J.W. Salter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    the great Coal-fields of Scotland, but the Ordnance Sur- vey of the Western Counties being then scarcely com- menced, we deemed it best to begin the Survey amongst the Old Red Sandstone and Carboniferous rocks of Berwickshire and Haddingtonshire, unusually perfect sections of these strata being exposed on the sea cliffs between North Berwick and the base of the Old Red Sandstone west of St. Abb's Head. In doing so it was felt that a key might be obtained to the right understand- ing of these strata in inland areas, where the rocks are often much concealed by deep superficial accumulations of drift. Accordingly, I personally commenced the mapping of that district, extending my work southward to the Lammermuir Hills, and westward beyond Belhaven, and by degrees, as the Survey progressed, it was extended by Mr. Howell and Mr. Geikie into the rest of Haddington- shire, Edinburghshire, and Fifeshire. During the progress of the work I superintended and examined the whole, and occasionally assisted when doubtful questions arose, and I believe that the mapping of the outline of the different formations of the beds of coal, the limestones, igneous rocks, faults, &c., is as accurate as the data and the present state of geological science will permit. In the Edinburgh sheet the whole of the district east of the fault that bounds the Pentland Hills was surveyed by Mr. Howell, taking it in connexion with his work in Haddingtonshire ; and the Pentland Hills and all to the west of them were mapped by Mr. Geikie, In the follow- ing Memoir each has described the area mapped by himself. In surveying the united area of East and Mid Lothian it so happened that the sheet of map comprising most part of Edinburghshire was completed and published first. Since then, Sheet No. 33 (Haddingtonshire) has also been published, and the Memoir descriptive of the district is in