Limestone Nodules. 11 



anguage of the modeni Galloway niau it is iiia contractions. A 

 thing on the top of the house is " i' tap i' hoose '" ; or at the back 

 of the dyke, " i' back i' dyke." On this side of any place is 

 " athist," and to go to bed is " gae lie." There may be some 

 words not in use in other districts. The branches of a tree are 

 " grains," and smaller ones " rice." A " stake and rice fence " is 

 a fence of posts with branches wattled between them. There 

 used to be old people wiio called gooseberries grosets. The word 

 " eveet " (French evite) is sometimes used for avoid. A man or 

 beast of weak constitution and easily knocked up is said to be 

 " cashy," no doubt from the French casse. The word horrid is 

 made to do as much as the young lady's awful. Crops are 

 "horrid geud," and lasses " horrid bonny." Strangers are some- 

 times called " f remit folk." In one thing most Scotchmen agree. 

 They have a rooted dislike to the letter L. Wall is wa', call is 

 ca', boll is bow, roll is row, and even salve is sa'. The French- 

 man ratlier shii'ks the same letter too, but both he and the 

 Scotchman rejoice in R, which the Englishman rather dislikes. 

 The question of the hard C and the soft one makes some diSer- 

 ence in languages, thougli the hard C has of late been getting the 

 best of it with schoolmen. The French chevalier and the Spanish 

 cavalier are one and the same, both meaning a man on horseback, 

 who was generally a greater man than one on foot. A Celt is 

 not a selt, he is a kelt ; and a cist is not sist, it is a kist. The 

 German avoids all confusioii by taking to K. His Emperor is 

 not Seezer, but Kaiser. In some cases, too, the letter 8 is pro- 

 nounced sh. Many of the Germans prefer this form of it, and in 

 Gaelic it is the same, such a word as shee, a fairy, being sitii. 



3. Note on the occurrence of Limestone Nodules containing 

 Cementstone Fossils, near Mojfat. 



By Mr J. T. Johnstone, Moffat. 



In the spring of 1877, when excavating for sand at Ellerslie 

 Villa, then in course of election, I ob.served certain small nodules 

 of a dark brown colour and of a semi-pasty consistence in the 

 depo.sit pierced during the excavation. On carefully extracting 

 some of these nodules I observed that casts of fossils were quite 

 ap[)arent in some of them. These, after being dried, were seen 



