\ 



Field Meetings. 123 



them at its Iiead, and, crossing- by a wooden bridg-e, continued 

 tlieir journey to Urcliard farm ; and from thence, by a grassy road 

 which leads to some of the sheep farms of the district, walked up 

 the side of a ravine, down which the Orchard Burn flows, until 

 they (;ame to a hug-e granite boulder at a considerable height in 

 the bed of the stream, said to be upwards of twenty tons in 

 weight, and crossed by a vein of white quartz, from which it 

 derives its name of the "Belted Stane." As the prevailing rocks 

 of tlie district are not granite but grey wacke or blue whinstone, 

 it is supposed that this boulder must have been transported by 

 glacial action from a more distant region. Farther up the valley, 

 however, there is a limited area in which red granite resembling- 

 that of Peterhead is found, and a specimen of this was picked up 

 at a subsequent stage of the journey. Returning to the road at 

 Orchard farm, attention was called to a standing stone in a neigh- 

 bouring field, about three feet high, and square in form, sometimes 

 called the font stone, because of two cup-like indentions in it, but 

 the opinion of some of the party was that more probably it had 

 formed the base of a cross. Higher up the valley, in a field on 

 the farm of Corsebank, was another stone of similar size, and of 

 different material from what is found in the district. The stone 

 at Orchard farm was sandstone, but this was horn blende, and 

 probably, like the " Belted Stane " before referred to, brought to 

 the place b}^ glacial action. But being- sunk into the ground, as if 

 erected by human hands, and not merely lying- upon the surface, 

 it may be inferred that it was intended to be a memorial of some 

 past event — such as a battle — and such is the tradition of the 

 district. It is said that it commemorates a fight between the 

 people of Crawford and the people of Nithsdale, the boundary 

 between Dumfriesshire and Lanarkshire being little more than a 

 mile distant. The upper part of the valley of the Crawick is com- 

 paratively narrow, and bounded on either side by smooth green 

 hills, mostly very steep, but clothed with grass to the top, and not 

 unlike the hills in the pass of Dalveen. One peculiarity of these 

 hills is that along the bottom of them run a series of pi'ojections, 

 I'esembh'ng buttresses, which have been formed by landslips 

 occurring from time to time, and give them an exceedingly 

 picturesque appearance. The journey was continued a little be- 

 yond the junction of the Spannoch with the Ci-awick, near which 

 the Wanlock also unites its waters with that stream. The most 



