442 MR MILNE ON THE GEOLOGY OF ROXBURGHSHIRE. 



The general dip of these coal-measures is, near Kelso, towards the east, and at a 

 small angle ; on the Carter (in Liddesdale) ; and at Hunthill, towards the south. 

 The Rowan burn coal-seams lie a great way above the beds of workable limestone 

 to be afterwards described, which crop out a couple of miles to the north and east 

 of that colliery, the whole strata there having a general dip to the south and west. 

 Even at Byreburn (where coal was formerly worked), and which is situated 

 about a mile north of Rowanburn, the seams are still many fathoms above the 

 limestone. In the west part of Liddesdale, however, the whole strata take a bend, 

 which accounts for the non-appearance of any workable seams of coal farther east 

 than Lawston : For, a little to the east of Rowanburn, the strata change from a 

 southerly to a westerly dip, and thus strike across the river Liddell into Cumber- 

 land, where they again resume their southerly dip, and preserve it, with some in- 

 considerable exceptions, eastward along the English border, all the way to Wooler, 

 at the east end of the Cheviots. Indeed, I consider that the coal-measures near 

 Berwick, and which run along the south bank of the river Tweed for about 10 miles, 

 dipping to the south, belong to the same class of rocks, and to the same epoch, as 

 those just described prevailing in Liddesdale. In the Berwick coal-field, as in 

 Liddesdale, there is a large body of workable limestone, consisting of exactly the 

 same number of workable beds, viz. eight, and of pretty much the same thickness. 

 Above that deposit there are also, in both coal-fields, workable coal-seams. It is 

 true that, in the Berwick coal-field, there are below the limestone beds other 

 seams of coal, which, though they have their equivalents in Liddesdale, are not 

 the same either in number or thickness ; a variation, however, which is not to be 

 wondered at, considering the distance between the two districts. 



I consider, then, that no workable seams of coal will be found in Liddesdale 

 west of Lawston a remark which I offer with reference to the attempts now pro- 

 posed to be made for discovering coal in Liddesdale. The thick limestone beds 

 which lie below all the workable coal-seams, run chiefly on the south bank of the 

 Liddell, from Penton Linns eastward. They do come a little farther north at the 

 junction of the Liddell and Hermitage ; and, in consequence of this, some thin 

 coal-seams are brought within the borders of Scotland, at the head of Tweeden- 

 burn and Harden-burn. Near Windburgh, it is true, there is a thick bed of lime- 

 stone worked, which is eight or ten miles within the Scotch border, so that there 

 might be supposed to be space enough for the existence of coal-seams lying 

 over it, but of which there is only one known, a few inches thick, a good distance 

 above the limestone. However, it is, in the first place, uncertain whether this 

 bed of limestone belongs to the series just referred to ; and, in the second place, 

 even though it were, there is not cover enough upon it to include or " bring on" 

 the coal-seams in question. In the third place, a large portion of the district inter- 

 vening between Windburgh and the English border, is occupied by a range of grey- 

 wacke hills. 



