MR MILNE ON THE GEOLOGY OF ROXBURGHSHIRE. 495 



banks thus engendered may assume. They may be round, or oval, or elongated, 

 according to circumstances. 



But to the influence of rain, must be added that of rivers and rivulets, as 

 capable of producing similar effects and in a more striking degree. And it is a 

 circumstance strongly favouring the supposition of their being capable of produc- 

 ing the effects in question, that rivulets are found flowing along or near the base 

 of many of the elongated gravel ridges, which have been compared to moraines, 

 as, for instance, at Gala House and Dogden Moss. 



On the whole, therefore, it appears to me that it is not necessary to resort to 

 glaciers, in order to account for the transportation of the boulders and gravel 

 which have been strewed over the south of Scotland, or to explain the formation 

 of knolls and elongated banks. It is, according to my humble opinion, quite pos- 

 sible to account for all the phenomena, by assuming that these boulders and 

 gravel were transported by submarine action, and subjected to processes of re- 

 arrangement, by subsequent aqueous action in the way just explained. Water, 

 as the true cause, is suggested by the arrangement and nature of the materials, 

 and is found capable of producing the required effects. Ice, as a cause, is nega- 

 tived by the arrangement and nature of the materials, and is, moreover, in many 

 situations, utterly inadequate to have produced any effects. 



6. I have still to make some reference to the formation of the fairy stones 

 found in Allan or Elland Water near Melrose, and other places. 



One of the theories on the subject, and supported by, if not originating with, 

 a Principal of one of our Scotch colleges, distinguished for his philosophical disco- 

 veries, is, that these stones are formed by the dropping of water, holding in solu- 

 tion earthy particles which cohere on its evaporation. But (1.) how does this 

 account for the general sphericity of these stones ? The^process just described 

 would form a columnar stalactite, it never would form a spheroid. (2.), I have 

 in my possession several specimens of greywacke pebbles studded all round with 

 these stones. By the process above mentioned, one can understand how the drop- 

 ping of water should produce a deposit on one side, but it leaves unexplained the 

 formation of similar deposits on other sides of the same pebble. 



Another theory, advocated by a writer in the Transactions of the Berwick- 

 shire Naturalists' Club, is, that these stones are formed into their spheroidal shape 

 by the attrition of the current, and rolling on the rocky channel of the river. But 

 there are many facts which shew the unsoundness of this theory. (1.) When these 

 stones are most perfect, they are not in the stream of the river, but on the side 

 of it, at the foot of the clay bank ; and when picked up in the channel, at some 

 distance from the clay bed, their characteristic shape is much obliterated. (2.) If 

 the theory suggested be sound, similar stones should be found, not only in higher 

 parts of the river, but in every other river whatever. Moreover, their like sphe- 

 roidal form should be acquired, not by one kind of stone only, but various other 



