278 The Upper Elf Loch, Braids. [Sess. 



marked on these old plans, was without a name. The city 

 arabs who frequent the hill know the latter loch as the " Dead 

 Man's Pond," but this designation was rejected by us, for 

 obvious reasons. Still, it was almost a necessity to have some 

 name for the loch we were investigating. On meeting Mr 

 Mackenzie one day at the Braids, he kindly went over the 

 ground with us, when he pointed out that there was a close 

 connection between the two lochs, as when the water in the 

 upper loch rose to an abnormal height, and overflowed the 

 surrounding ground, the surplus water found its way through 

 a rocky eminence separating it from the lower loch, or Elf 

 Loch proper. That the surplus water from the upper loch 

 was really got rid of in this way had been proved, we were 

 informed, by a strong aniline dye having been put into its 

 overflow, enabling it thus to be identified as it emerged from 

 the other side of the intervening hill and fell into the lower 

 loch. On account of this phenomenon, therefore, we have 

 ventured, for the purposes of this paper, to name the one the 

 Upper Elf Loch and the other the Lower Elf Loch. As 

 already stated, however, the present investigations refer wholly 

 to the upper sheet of water. 



We have been unable to learn anything regarding the origin 

 or the history of the Upper Elf Loch. That it would at one 

 time cover a much larger area than it does at present is very 

 probable. It varies a good deal in size throughout the year, 

 according to the weather conditions. We found it consider- 

 ably swollen after heavy rains in October of last year, and it 

 then measured about 350 feet from east to west, and nearly 

 100 feet from north to south. When it overflows, however, 

 these limits are much exceeded. Mr Goodchild has favoured 

 us with the following note on the geology of the Braid Hills, 

 and the probable origin of the sheets of water found there. 

 He says : — 



The rock surfaces at the northern end of the Pentlands, and especially 

 those of the Braid Hills, are grooved and furrowed to an extraordinary 

 extent by rudely-parallel depressions, whose general direction ranges north- 

 north-easterly. These do not follow the structural character of the rocks, 

 and instead of coinciding with the outcrops of the softer and more easily 

 destroyed parts of the strata, they cut across these, often at considerable 

 angles. For this and other reasons these furrows are now generally 

 regarded as of glacial origin. Many of the furrows in question are very 



