78 The Kame at Mortonhall, [Sess. 



Hills, but west of the mansion-house it seems to have been 

 " improved " away altogether. Perhaps some of our members 

 who reside in the Colinton district may have observed gravel 

 mounds in their neighbourhood, and will be able to say how 

 far the Kame extended in that direction. Making a rough 

 guess, the average height of the ridge is 30 feet, with a width 

 at the base varying from 50 to 100 yards. Beech-trees grow 

 on the top, but only attain a moderate size. The stones which 

 go to build up the Kame are mainly felstone (sometimes called 

 quartz porphyry), and smaller quantities of a coarse-grained 

 red sandstone derived from local sources. Mr John Hender- 

 son, well known to us all as a skilful local geologist, was kind 

 enough to go over the ground with me lately, and he is of 

 opinion that the material has been carried from the Braid 

 Hills. We failed to discover any glacial striae on the stones. 

 Only a few are angular, the great mass being rounded and 

 water-worn, thus indicating a long process of abrasion in the 

 torrent. 



In writing this brief note, my aim has been, not so much to 

 give a detailed account of the Kame, as to invite your atten- 

 tion to an interesting item of local geology. Within an hour's 

 walk of the city we have a memorial of the glacial period — 

 surely one of the most attractive epochs in geological history. 

 The endeavour to spell out the hieroglyphics which old-time 

 ice-sheets have carved upon the rocks is an absorbing study, 

 and if we are loyal to the teaching of fact, glaciers that now 

 exist (although but shrivelled up remnants of their former 

 selves) will guide us to right conclusions. Their methods of 

 operation are always the same, although the extent is curtailed. 

 We are apt to think of the glacial period as being severely 

 rigorous and desolate — a time when animals and plants had 

 either to migrate southwards or perish. While this was so, 

 we may do well to remember that moving masses of ice did a 

 great work in fertilising the plains. They carried rocks from 

 the mountains, pulverised them, and spread the grist over the 

 lowlands. Wherever the glacial drift has been carried, there 

 the land has been greatly enriched, and made fit for the occu- 

 pation of man. The American farmer is raising wheat on soil 

 laid down by this mighty distributor, and as a result, we are 

 getting cheap bread. So in one respect, at least, things are 



