᾿ TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 105 
are nearly continuous. They are well seen at Colmonel, Daljeric and Aldens; also 
north of the valley on the Knockdolian estate, and at Loch Tor. 
Further up the valley of the Stincher the same series (of limestone, shales and 
conglomerates) is seen at Barr and along the Gregg water. The conglomerates 
contain fossils and limestone bands. North of Barr is the Craigwell limestone un- 
derlaid by calcareous concretionary shale and a great conglomerate two or three 
hundred feet thick; and a little above the limestone is a conglomerate with a cal- 
careous band about seven feet thick. Lastly, on the road a few miles south of 
Straiton, is a limestone twelve feet thick imbedded in a conglomerate. This 
Stinchard limestone is the most important calcareous zone among the rocks of the 
chain ; and it is probably overlaid in its further range towards the N.E. by the car- 
boniferous series of Dumfriesshire. 
The coarse conglomerates remind us of some very coarse conglomerates associated 
with the Llandeilo series in some parts of South Wales. That the Stincher lime- 
stone is repeated in almost vertical unduiations at Knockdolian farm and Loch Tor, 
is, the author thinks, undoubted: he thinks also that the same may be said of a 
limestone that appears on the neighbouring coast, near Bennan Head, associated 
with dark indurated shale and conglomerate. 
Still higher in the group here described (at Ardwell, on the coast south of Girvan) 
are hard, greenish-gray, coarse flagstones, with graptolites, and orthoceratites (of a 
Trenton limestone species). ‘The whole series forming this third group ends (as 
seen on the shore near Girvan) with a great mass composed of greenish, arenaceous 
slate in thin bands, alternating with greenish bands of hard quartzose sandstone, and 
occasionally with irregular beds of conglomerate, much contorted here and there, 
but on the whole dipping N.W. at a great angle. The beds last noticed are erro- 
neously coloured in M‘Culloch’s map as old red sandstone. 
(4.) North Girvan group.—This last (and the author thinks the highest group on 
the north flank of the chain) rises from beneath the carboniferous rocks of Girvan 
water above Dalquharran, into a rudely dome-shaped mass about three miles long, 
and extends to a great concretionary and highly inclined mass of limestone at Craig 
Head, which is near the S.W. end of the group. This limestone is associated with, 
and partly penetrated by, a great mass of trap; and its structure is partly metamor- 
phic, so that good fossils can only be procured from its more earthy associated beds. 
The whole group (to which the limestone seems subordinate ὃ) is overlaid by trap 
_rocks, by the carboniferous rocks of the coast of Ayrshire, and partially also by the 
conglomerates of the old red sandstone. It seems also to be underlaid by indurated 
shales and flagstones, which contain numerous trilobites. Its prevailing character 
is, however, that of a shelly sandstone, like that which in South Wales separates the 
Llandeilo flag from the tile-stone and the old red sandstone ; and this is the geolo- 
gical place which the author gives it, both on what he considers good physical and 
zoological evidence. 
(5.) Balmae group.—Under this name is included a group of rocks which, near 
Balmae farm, bound the S.E. extremity of Kirkcudbright Bay. The group is essen- 
tially composed of a hard, coarse and thick-bedded greywacke, alternated with flag- 
stone in thin beds, and with thick masses of indurated slate containing septaria and 
other calcareous concretions. In some of these beds are numerous graptolites; and 
associated with the calcareous concretions were corals, orthoceratites and shells, 
both bivalves and univalves. The fossils are not easy to procure; but a good series, 
submitted to the Geological Society of London by Earl Selkirk, was collected by 
Messrs. Underwood and Fleming, and they appeared to belong to a deposit of the 
age of the Wenlock shale. Knowing this apparently decisive zoological evidence, 
the author went round Barrow Head and some oiher parts of the neighbouring coast, 
in the hopes of seeing some physical evidence for the existence of. an upper group; 
but he was disappointed. The rocks along the neighbouring coast have the average 
character of the rocks he includes in the second group of the chain. They are very 
highly inclined and thrown into great undulations, and the Balmae group is involved 
in these undulations without any material change of structure that (independently 
of fossil evidence) would in any way suggest the existence of a new and upper group. 
A little way along the coast, towards the N.E., these rocks are overlaid by the old 
red sandstone ; and still further to the N.E., beyond the old red sandstone, calca- 
reous bands appear among the slate rocks, but apparently without fossils. 
