MR MILNE ON THE GEOLOGY OF ROXBURGHSHIRE. 



KEMP then goes on to suggest, that icebergs may, by bumping on the sides of the 

 hills, have produced the phenomena. But I quote the above passage, as shewing 

 the opinion of an accurate local observer, that few or none of the terraces in ques- 

 tion are quite horizontal. 



At the same time, it is possible to suppose, that accumulations of gravel and 

 sand, formed on the beach of a sea, may, by subsequent denudation, have been 

 worn down in some places so as now to present a surface sloping either from the 

 hill, or along its side. On the whole, however, the evidence derived from horizon- 

 tality was so doubtful, that I could not venture to place much reliance on it. 



The next point to which I attended, was the nature of the materials compos- 

 ing these terraces. But I made little progress in this inquiry, as the interior of 

 them is seldom exposed. From the slight insight, however, which I did get 

 into the structure of some of them, it appeared to me that they were not sea- 

 beaches, at least of the character or comparatively modern date which has been 

 suggested. I found that on Ruberslaw, Dunion, Cowdenknows, and the Eildon 

 Hills, these terraces were composed chiefly of red soil derived from decomposed 

 strata of old red sandstone ; and that, in fact, they indicated the upper limits of 

 this formation. In the small burns and sheep-drains which intersect the terraces 

 on these hills, soft strata, chiefly horizontal, are to be seen, in almost all cases 

 of a deep-red colour ; and, on the north side of the Eildons, containing occasion- 

 ally a brown-coloured and gritty-coal sandstone. It is, therefore, not improbable, 

 that these shelves have been formed so far back as the time when the sedi- 

 mentary rocks just alluded to were deposited, the land being then at least 1100 or 

 1200 feet lower in level than at present. On that hypothesis, but on that only, 

 is it possible to explain the fact, that the upper limits of this formation should be 

 manifested by ten-aces of its debris all nearly, if not exactly, on a level. 



So far, then, I am inclined to admit that there is evidence existing on the 

 Roxburghshire hills, of the sea having formerly stood at a far higher level than at 

 present. This evidence depends, however, in my humble opinion, entirely on the 

 fact of the terraces in question being the upper limits of the red sandstone for- 

 mation ; and therefore it indicates terraces only at one particular level. I can 

 see no evidence to shew successive levels, at which the sea reposed so long as to 

 form other beaches, though of these Mr KEMP thinks he has discovered above a 

 dozen. 



I must add, however, that even this evidence of a single sea-beach or sea- 

 level, is not altogether free from doubt ; for it is not yet to my mind matter of 

 absolute certainty, that the upper limits of the sandstone formation, as shewn on 

 the Roxburghshire hills, do all coincide in level. My present impression certainly 

 is, that they do coincide, at least so near, as to afford strong presumptive evidence 

 of a common origin. But it would be desirable to test more rigidly the accuracy 

 of this observation. 



