480 MR MILNE ON THE GEOLOGY OF ROXBURGHSHIRE. 



posing transport by a glacier. But in other cases, and these the most frequent, 

 such a hypothesis is altogether inadmissible. 



Take, for instance, the case of the granite boulders of Liddesdale, which are 

 found strewed all over the country, between the Carter on the east and Canonby 

 on the west. 



These blocks, it is certain, have, by some means or other, been brought from 

 the westward. The only places, in this part of the island, where granite, either 

 red or grey, is known to exist, are in Cumberland, Kirkcudbrightshire, and Gal- 

 loway. The nearest of these places is Criffel ; and it certainly appears to me, on 

 comparing the granite boulders of Liddesdale with the granite of Criifel, that they 

 are identical. 



If this be the case, there is an end of the Glacial Theory, as affording either 

 a probable or possible explanation of the phenomenon. For, in the first place, 

 who ever heard of a glacier 40 miles long, that being the distance of Criffel 

 from the upper part of Liddesdale ? Moreover this glacier, in order to have trans- 

 sported Criffel granite to the hills round Castleton, and near the Carter, must 

 have moved inconsistently with the natural levels and drainage of the country, 

 these being from Criffel, generally speaking, towards the south and south-west, 

 and not towards the east. A glacier which transported granite blocks from Crif- 

 fel to the hills of Liddesdale, besides having been 40 miles long, must have crossed 

 the valleys of the Nith, Annan, Esk, and Tarras rivers, as well as the high ridges 

 separating them ; it must have done so, without having any lateral barriers to 

 retain and guide it ; and, lastly, it must have moved up the valley of the Liddel 

 for at least 15 miles of its course. 



Discarding, then, the glacial theory as quite insufficient to account for the 

 transportation of the granite boulders of Liddesdale, and of several other of the 

 oases noticed in the first part of this Memoir, are there any other means of trans- 

 portation which can plausibly be assigned ? 



Before offering any suggestions on this point, I beg here to allude for a moment 

 to another general feature of the district, as tending to throw some light on the 

 question, a feature well known to prevail in many other parts of the island. I 

 allude to the fact, that almost all the hills present precipices of bare rock towards 

 the west, and tails of gravel on the east ; a phenomenon, as already mentioned, 

 first prominently noticed by the late Sir JAMES HALL. This, by the way, is one 

 of those things which the glacial theory not only fails to explain, but which is 

 entirely at variance with it ; for if it is alleged that the hills were bared by gla- 

 ciers, the precipitous sides should always be towards the highest part of the coun- 

 try from which the glacier descended ; so that, in Liddesdale, they ought to be 

 towards the east, instead of being, as they all are, towards the west. 



The phenomena now adverted to shew, I think, pretty clearly, that, at a 

 comparatively recent period in the history of the earth, there was some vast rush 



