86 Mr. W. Kemp's Observations on the latest 



stance of the kind ; it is certainly unequalled in this district 

 for showing much in little space ; however, we could point 

 to many places having the same characteristics, and many of 

 them scarce inferior in appearance; and as all the terraces are 

 rounded over in the same manner at their extremities, we may 

 infer the cause to have been the same. Moreover, all these 

 are highly elevated and exposed to the open west, where float- 

 ing icebergs borne along by a tumultuous sea would strike orF 

 and abrade the rock exposed to their action with almost irre- 

 sistible force ; and as masses of considerable size sail deep in 

 the water, their bottom would first strike the ground, and be 

 driven over the still sunken ridge with vast increased press- 

 ure*. Such a process going onward for an unknown period 

 of time, for a few months in each succeeding year, seems 

 clearly to account for these phasnomena, and we should think 

 that the most sceptical would concede to it upon inspection. 



There is another division of the subject which has attracted 

 much attention, and one which we think cannot be solved 

 without the aid of floating icebergs. We now allude to those 

 large angular masses of stone which are so frequently found 

 in situations far from the parent rock, and which differ very 

 much in appearance from such rounded boulders as have been 

 rolled along the declivity behind the height they were torn 



well-polished flagstone, and all the protuberant blocks would have been 

 dressed down to an even surface : " as proof, they allude to such polished 

 surfaces upon the Swiss Alps. In answer to the above objections, in the first 

 place we must admit of weathering to a certain degree ; however, it is known 

 that the hard blue rock in this district almost defies the penetrating tooth of 

 time. There are many old towers in the neighbourhood built with that 

 stone, whose aged walls have withstood the vicissitude of the seasons for 

 many ages, and where the edges of the stones are as sharp, and the dint of the 

 hammer as legible as if they had been erected recently. Besides, we have 

 examined rocks that had been previously covered with a coating of debris, 

 which presented the same rounded appearance. In the second place, why 

 compare this rock with granite ? Granite being an unstratified rock, con- 

 sequently if not upon a steep precipice, will almost resist any conceivable 

 power to tear it away, except the mechanical wearing down of the surface; 

 hence its polished appearance. But very different is the case with the 

 broken edge of the stratified greywacke, where in this district few of the 

 beds exceed 18 inches in thickness ; besides, the beds are crossed in all di- 

 rections by fissures (joints'), so that the larger blocks may resist denuda- 

 tion for a time; at last they are borne away, but a hollow is left in their 

 place, while the next in height becomes prominent until it yields in its turn, 

 and so on continually. 



* We were much pleased to see the same idea taken by that able geo- 

 logist, Mr. Maclaren. Describing the striated rocks of Corstorphine hill, 

 he says, " An iceberg, for instance, deep enough to scratch the lower part 

 of the slope, and forced by a current over the higher level, must have been 

 partly lifted out of the water, and its pressure here would be enormously 

 augmented." — Scotsman Newspaper, June £5, 1842. 



