MR MILNE ON THE GEOLOGY OF ROXBURGHSHIRE. 441 



along the south margin of the county, from Castleton eastward to the Carter. 

 At the Rowan Burn colliery, a beautiful set of drawings has been made by Mr 

 GIBSON, manager there, of the vegetables, fish-scales and teeth, as well as of 

 shells,* which are frequently found in the shales and fire-clays immediately above 

 and below the coal seams. At Maxwell-heugh, near Kelso, a great abundance 

 of fossil vegetables, peculiar to the coal-sandstones, have been found, of which 

 specimens nay be seen in the Kelso Museum. At Hunthill, where there is abun- 

 dance of black coal-shales, though surrounded by red rocks, I found the teeth and 

 spines of fish, which appear the same as those of the Berwick and Edinburgh 

 coal-fields, and which are generally considered to be the Megalychthis. I have 

 found there also the well known bivalve shell Spirifer, which abounds in carbo- 

 niferous strata. At this last place, trials have been made at different times dur- 

 ing the last fifty years, for coal ; and Mr BELL, the present proprietor, renewed 

 these attempts some years ago, though without success. In the sinkings made 

 for this purpose, a series of black shales, thin limestones, and grey sandstones, 

 were gone through, clearly indicative of the coal-formation. In the shales, no- 

 dules of clay-ironstone occur, filled with coal vegetables.! At the Forrester's 

 house, near Hilton hill, about two miles north of Ancrum, a coal-seam, 6 inches 

 thick, was found in sinking a well ; and the portions excavated for that purpose 

 burnt well in the fire4 



F 



* I saw some specimens of Lingula at Rowanburn in the fire-clay and shale lying about the pit- 

 mouth. This shell is very common in the Mid-Lothian coal-shales. 



t As great doubts are still entertained by many persons of the relative age of the dark-coloured 

 strata of Hunthill, and the red rocks which surround this spot, I may mention, that the two sets of rocks 

 may be seen, if not in junction, at all events within a few yards of each other, in the glen on the west 

 side of Hunthill House. In 1839, I examined the place, at the request of some of the principal inha- 

 bitants of Jedburgh, who, on public grounds, were desirous of learning the probability of coal being found 

 there, with the laudable view of starting a subscription to assist the proprietor in boring and sink- 

 ing for it. It was then that I discovered the fossils above mentioned, which left no doubt in my mind 

 as to the class of rocks prevailing at Hunthill, though, as they appeared to underlie the Carter limestone, 

 I discouraged any expectation of finding a workable coal-seam. On this occasion, also, I observed that 

 the red rocks in the glen just referred to, appeared to dip under the shales and limestones ; though, from 

 the quantity of grass and brushwood then covering the ground, no line of junction was discernible. I 

 have been informed that last autumn (1842) Mr ADAM MATHESON, millwright, Jedburgh, and who pos- 

 sesses an ardent taste for Geological researches, made a minute inspection of the spot, for the purpose of 

 clearing up the above point, and traced the red rocks up to the coal-measures, beneath which he and Mr 

 JEFFREY, writer in Jedburgh (who accompanied him), distinctly saw that they dipped. He informs me, 

 that only about 4 feet above the red sandstone strata, there is a bed of limestone about 2 feet thick, in 

 three layers, in quality exactly resembling the limestone worked on the Carter at Meadowcleugh. About 

 300 feet above this limestone bed at Hunthill, a coal-seam 3 inches thick occurs. 



J Sir W. SCOTT of Ancrum informed me (in 1840), that he ascertained this from the person who 

 had dug through the coal in sinking the well. 



VOL. XV. PAKT III. 6 D 



