44 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



in a tliiu bed of sandstone near the foot of the section, the remains of a 

 reedy kind of plant, somewhat resembling a Calamite. This, however, is 

 the only fossil that has yet been found in them. 



Mr. Fraser then proceeded to describe the junction of these beds with the 

 old red in Auchinreach glen, and to trace them in two of the glens to the 

 spout of Ballaggan, giving, at the same time, a description of them as he 

 had seen them in these two glens. He went on to prove, that the range of 

 hills, called the Campsie and Kilpatrick hills, have been the principal elevat- 

 ing causes of all the strata in that district ; and he thovight it also evident, 

 that all the strata which have been carried up with these trap elevations 

 have been removed by denudation. He was not aware of any of the Bal- 

 laggan strata being seen between the section he had described and the river 

 Leven. The higher beds of the Campsie strata seem to have extended 

 nearly to Kilpatrick at some former period, for the very same limestones and 

 shales which are found in the south hill and Craigen glen, with the charac- 

 teristic fossils, are found there flanking the hill-side. The trap hills run 

 nearly north-east and south-west, so that all remains of the carboniferous 

 system to the west is only a portion of its very lowest beds between Ballag- 

 gan and Auchinreach glen, being a distance of upwards of twelve miles. 

 The whole of this distance is covered by a range of trap hills, or rather hillocks, 

 which have suffered from denudation to a veiy great extent, for they have 

 all evidently been connected at a former period, though now they are 

 separated by considerable hollows ; the strata, therefore, which have been 

 carried up by the trap, and then removed by denudation, cannot be less than 

 from fifteen hundred to two thousand feet in thickness. The Ballaggan 

 beds, as already stated, are upwards of a thousand feet in thickness, and the 

 higher beds on the south hill are moi'e than five hundred feet. 



He then proceeded to describe, at some length, the beds in their ascend- 

 ing order, proving, as he went along, the frequent depressions and elevations 

 to which that district had been subjected, as evinced by the interstratifica- 

 tion of fresh water and marine beds, besides other evidences which were 

 mentioned. He then turned the attention of the Society to the great 

 mineral axis of the district, pointing out its peculiarities, and proving from 

 that axis itself, that the trap eminences were the work of a series of pro- 

 tracted outbursts, and the whole district one of constant change, — now 

 elevated, now depressed. He proved that the valleys of Strathblane and 

 Campsie were valleys of denudation, and brought forward some very strik- 

 ing and interesting facts in support of his statements, and vividly elucidating 

 his reasoning. 



Mr. Fraser then wound up a long Paper, of which the above is but a faint 

 outline, by stating, that the mind is overwhelmed in attempting to compre- 

 hend, or even form. a vague idea of the vast eternity which has rolled be- 

 tAveen the time of the first existence of these strata and their present shat. 



