found in Sandstone in Dumfriesshire. 209 



its present state by the name of a clay-face, and would once 

 more, when subjected to the operation of the returning period of 

 rain, both fix the sand, and prepare it for the reception of per- 

 manent impressions of the tracks of wandering animals. Thus, 

 from year to year, the same round would be continued, and the 

 same appearances would take place, till, after the revolution of 

 many ages, what was originally sand would be converted, by a 

 common process of nature, into sandstone, and being exposed, 

 in common with the rest of our globe, to those mighty but mys- 

 terious convulsions of which there are every where such incon- 

 trovertible proofs, would at last, by the submersion of the uni- 

 versal deluge, be buried under its present covering of soil. 



RUTHWELL, \5th Dec. 1827. 



VOL. XI. PART I. D d 



