120 The Scottish Naturalist. 



made about forty-five years ago, near the Newton of Pitcairns, 

 about two miles from Dunning station. This effort was made 

 by means of a public subscription, raised through the instru- 

 mentality of the inhabitants of the district ; but although there 

 was a bore of between 200 and 250 feet, there were no indica- 

 tions of the existence of the coveted mineral. Undaunted by 

 this failure, another effort was made in the same locality a few 

 years later, with the same unhappy result. Our readers are 

 pretty familiar with the recent attempts at Auchterarder, where, 

 disregarding the opinions of those best able to judge, the pro- 

 moters persisted in boring to a considerable depth without 

 meeting with the slightest encouragement." 



Better for Strathearn to satiate its mania for ruinous boring 

 upon this lower Coal-measure theory, for there is then the 

 excuse that possibly a "thin seam" somewhere within the 2000 

 feet might be struck. The New Red Sandstone idea is a forlorn 

 hope, if the Dron beds are carboniferous, as they assuredly are. 

 The mania has sent pulverised specimens of Old Red Sandstone 

 to learned professors, who have returned the same with the 

 assurance that they are " almost identical with New Red Sand- 

 stone," under similar circumstances. Other " proofs " have 

 been adduced by " practical " men, from the fact that iron exists 

 in boulder clays and trap, &c, that finds its way into the valley 

 drains. Others have " tasted water " and have found therein a 

 sure index to abundance of tantalizing coal. Operations by the 

 " divining rod " surely have been kept close. There never 

 was a more wilful boring than that of Auchterarder, within a 

 stone's-throw of such a quarry. Dunning is a little dignified 

 even after the third venture, if its rocks are Lower Coal- 

 measures ; but if it plants its bore on another spot, within a 

 good mile or so of the other three situations, all dignity is gone 

 for ever. 



Whether the Dunning beds bear a Carboniferous aspect some 

 may judge better than I. The following represents the register 

 down to 132 feet, and is from the " Perthshire Constitutional": 

 " Surface earth, 1 foot ; brown, soft, 3 feet; clay, 1 foot, 6 inches; 

 brown stone, 5 feet; freestone, 14 feet, 5 inches; white free- 

 stone, 8 feet, 3 inches ; white freestone, hard, 1 foot, 5 inches ; 

 soft white freestone, 11 feet, 10 inches; do., with brown part- 

 ings, 8 feet, 4 inches; soft white freestone, 1 foot, 10 inches; 

 do., 3 feet, 4 inches; bands, brown, soft, 1 foot, 11 inches; 

 light freestone, 5 feet, 7 inches ; brown freestone, 1 foot, 5 



