MR MILNE ON THE GEOLOGY OF ROXBURGHSHIRE. 487 



pebbles and sand could only have been deposited by water, then it cannot be 

 doubted by any one, who looks at the internal structure of the ridges of Liddes- 

 dale and of Kelso in Roxburghshire, or of Dogden Moss, and of Dunse, in Ber- 

 wickshire, that they must have been formed by aqueous and not glacial action. 



These kaims, I may here observe, are not of rare occurrence, either in this 

 country or abroad, though, considering their very singular appearance, it is re- 

 markable how little the origin of them has, till lately, been speculated on. I 

 have mentioned two remarkable examples in Berwickshire, in addition to those 

 in Roxburgh ; and, probably, many persons here may have seen the one at Camp- 

 end,* about two miles north of Dalkeith. There is another to the south-west of 

 Arniston, near the Moorfoot Hills. In the State of Maine, in North America, 

 there is a ridge provincially termed Horseback, which Dr JACKSON, the State geo- 

 logist, says " consists of sand and gravel, built up exactly like the embankments 

 for railroads, the slope on either side being almost 30, while it rises above the sur- 

 rounding lowlands to the height of 30 feet, its top being perfectly level, and wide 

 enough for two carriages to pass abreast." In the same district, there is another 

 horseback described as running for no less than six miles, and elevated about 15 

 feet above the swamps on each side. The horsebacks of New Limerick and 

 Houlton, in the United States, are much more elevated, some of them being (as is 

 said)f 90 feet above the adjoining places. 



In Scania (a province of Sweden), a number of similar ridges prevail through 

 the country, a description of which is given in Mr LYELL'S Bakerian Lecture 

 on the rise of land in Sweden.^ He says that, near Stockholm, " remarkable 

 ridges of sand and gravel are seen, called in Sweden Sand-oasar. These oasars 

 are immense banks of sand, from fifty to several hundred yards broad, and from 

 fifty to more than one hundred feet in height, which may often be traced in un- 

 broken lines for a great many leagues through the country, but are breached 

 occasionally by narrow transverse valleys. They usually run in a direction from 

 north to south ; generally terminate on both sides in a steep slope, and are some- 

 times so narrow at the top, as to leave little more than room for a road. As they 

 afford excellent materials for road-making, a great many of the highways in Swe- 

 den are carried either along the summit or base of these ridges, so that the tra- 

 veller has many opportunities of observing their form and structure. In places 

 where they are composed of large rounded boulders, of about the size of a man's 

 head, no stratification is observable ; but where, as is more usual, they consist of 

 gravel and fine sand, they are invariably stratified, in the same manner as sand 

 and gravel in the beds of rivers. I shall offer, in another place, some speculations 



* This word is probably a corruption for Kaim-end, as Kaim is the term by which these elongated 

 ridges are universally designated in the south of Scotland. The ridge here referred to has been, in several 

 parts of Mr LAING'S farm, opened, both for gravel and for sand. Its length is about half a mile. 



t HITCHCOCK, on Deluges, Part II., p. 103. \ London Philosophical Transactions for 1835. 



