54 Mr Men teat h on ihe Geology ()f Nkhsdale, 



favourable climate, and in possession of coal lor all its necessities, 

 yet, being deprived of limestone, and obliged, at much expence, 

 to import it from other quarters, it has been retarded in its im- 

 provements, and is inferior, in respect to extent cultivated, and 

 its condition, to that of New Cumnock. 



But the basin of Closeburn, without a particle of coal, yet 

 having within itself at its southern extremity, as at Closeburn 

 and Barjarg, an ample deposit of excellent limestone, has made 

 rapid strides in the improvement of its soil, and must and will 

 proceed much farther. Many and most striking evidences on 

 the estate of Closeburn are before the eye, of the astonishing 

 and cheering alterations which lime, laid on in great quantities, 

 makes on the face of a heathery and barren tract of country. 



Even the basin of Dumfries, deprived of either coal or lime- 

 stone, has, by good communications by land, and by improve- 

 ments in its river navigation, been enabled to remedy, in some 

 degree, its want of a limestone deposit ; and will not be outdone 

 by the natural advantages of the three higher basins of the Nith. 



It may not here be unworthy of remark^ and may appear not 

 a little extraordinary, that, in situations so similar as the basins 

 of New Cumnock, Sanquhar, and Closeburn, we find coal and 

 lime in abundance in one, coal only in another, and lime alone 

 in a third. What process could be going on in these different 

 basins, so as to afford this difference of products, geology has 

 not yet perhaps advanced sufficiently far to enable us to attempt 

 any satisfactory explanation. 



Having now, as far as we have been able, given an account 

 of a few of the remarkable geological appearances of the four 

 basins of the Nith, or of Nithsdale, it may not be uninteresting 

 to take a hasty glance of the other two districts into which 

 Dumfriesshire is naturally divided, viz. Annandale and Esk- 

 dale, in order that we may be able to draw a comparative view 

 of the natural advantages of the three great districts of this 

 county. 



Basins of ihe Annan. — The first of these, Annandale, maybe 

 divided into the Upper and Lower Basins. The upper is sepa- 

 rated from the lower basin by a narrow ridge of amygdaloid 



