Formation and Age of the Queensberrys. 247 



geological formation. From the east coast to the west there 

 stretches across the south of Scotland a broad transverse belt of 

 rocks, known as the Silurian Belt. It is bounded on the north by 

 the great fault which runs from Ballantrae to Dunbar, and sepa- 

 rates it from the Central Lowlands of Forth and Clyde, and on 

 the south by the Cheviots and Solway. The ranges of hills, 

 already described as Southern Uplands, traverse the centre of this 

 belt, and may therefore be termed Silurian Uplands. They are 

 composed of hard, massive rocks of great age. Greywacke (grey- 

 rock), which is better known locally as whinstone, is the principal 

 ingredient. It varies from a fine-grained deposit with scales of 

 mica to a coarse grit, containing small quartz pebbles, and some- 

 times into a conglomerate or pudding stone (haggis rock). 

 Associated with the prevailing greywacke are thin bands of grey 

 and black shales charged with fossil remains. All these different 

 strata — shales, greywacke, grit, and conglomerate — represent 

 sand, mud, and other sediments that were deposited along the 

 floor of an ancient ocean. They are the waste of the land surface 

 of that period, which was carried into the ocean and there re- 

 assorted into various deposits. The pebbles were dropped near 

 to the shore, the sand was carried further out into the bay, 

 while the fine mud was swept out to the verge of sedimentation 

 before it sank. Beyond this limit of earthy deposit, where clear 

 water conditions prevailed, the sea was crowded with minute 

 Foraminifera and Radiolaria. Showers of these dead bodies fell 

 to the sea bottom and formed a fine radiolarian ooze, resembling 

 the deep sea deposits of to-day in the Atlantic. This vast ocean 

 continued without interruption during the course of several ages, 

 which are grouped into one large epoch (Silurian). The ocean 

 of Siluria, with its massive deposits of 22,000 feet of rock, existed 

 in the earlier stages of the world's history. The "dawn of life " 

 is attributed to the epoch of the older Cambrian rocks, which are 

 found in Wales to underlie the Silurian group. 



The present position of the Queensberry strata gives little 

 indication of the previous horizontal character of these deposits as 

 they were originally spread out on the vast sea floor. The strata 

 are tilted at every conceivable angle. Near the top of Wee 

 Queensberry they stand on end in a vertical position. In other 

 exposures they are found to be twisted into great curves or arches 

 termed anticlines. Sometimes the puckering has been rapid. 



