14 Notes on an Old Tkauition. 



i6th November, 1899. 



Mr James Barbour, V.P., in the Chair. 



Donations and Exchanges. — Annuiil Report of tlie Smithsuiiian 

 Institution for 1896 ; Transactions of the Nova Scotia Institute 

 of Science, Part L, Vol. IX. ; Annals of the Ncav York Academy 

 of Sciences, Vol. XII. ; International Catalogue of Queensland 

 Scientific Literature ; Guide to Queensland ; Proceedings of the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences. 



Communications. 



Notes on an Old Traditioii, 



By the Rev. John Cairns. 



About six miles to the north-west of Dumfries the River Cairn 

 unites its waters to those of the Cluden, which comes tumbling 

 from its source among the Irongray hills down a rocky course, 

 the most picturesque part of which is the fall at the Routin' 

 Bridge. Below the junction the river sometimes bears the name 

 of the Cairn, which is much the larger of the two uniting streams, 

 Init it is more frequently known as the Cluden, and it is thus 

 designated on the Ordnance Map. That it has been so called 

 from early times is shown by the names of such places as Cluden 

 and West Cluden on its banks and Lincluden at its mouth. 

 Above the junction the Cluden is popularly known as the Old 

 AVater, and it is so marked on the Ordnance Map. 



An interesting explanation of these facts is afforded by an old 

 and very persistent tradition current in the neighbourhood, 

 according to which the Cluden originally had the valley to itself, 

 the Cairn being an intruder of comparatively recent date. It is 

 atHrmed by this tradition that at one time the Cairn exijanded 

 into a loch above Dalgoner, in the parish of Dunscore, and that 

 the outlet from this loch was to the east and not to the south, 

 the river finding its way by the valley which runs down by 

 Birkshaw, Lag Tower, and Glenmids to the Nith a little below 

 Auldgirth. The tradition goes on to say that in the Middle 

 Ages the monks of Melrose, to whom a grant had been made of 

 tlie lands of Dunscore, with a view to the improvement of their 

 property, drained the loch at Dalgoner by cutting a new outlet 

 for the Cairn thiuiigh a rocky barrier, on which it is even said 



