342 ON THE ANCIENT GRAUWACKE 
cupy? Weare, I suspect, not yet in circumstances to answer 
the question. But to conclude,— I have said it is probable 
that our convoluted Grauwackes were raised at a very early 
period over the level of the sea. At least, in the beds of Red 
Sandstone which rest unconformably over their lower slopes, 
and along their deeper valleys, we detect the first traces in the 
south of Scotland of a terrestrial flora. The fauna is decidedly 
that of the Upper Old Red Sandstone; and, mingled with 
scales of Holoptychius Nobilissimus, and plates of Pterichthys 
major, there occur what seem to be fragments of calamites, and 
what are unequivocally the fronds of a fern. And though 
shadow and darkness still envelop the land upon which they 
grew, we may be permitted to indulge at least in the provisional 
belief, that its framework was formed of our convoluted Lower 
Silurians, already existing as solid rock, and charged, as now, 
with the remains of a creation that had perished; that it was 
encircled by an Old Red Sandstone’ ocean, inhabited by fishes 
of uncouth form and gigantic size; and that it presented on 
its sloping hill-sides its primzval denizens of the vegetable 
kingdom, now to the dews of the night, and anon to the light of 
day. Who would not wish to know somewhat regarding the 
geography, and the organisms, vegetable and animal, of this 
ancient land of the Lammermoors,— this Scotland emphati- 
cally of the olden time? But, save in a few tattered fragments, 
its chronicles have perished, and we can but darkly surmise, 
from the existing evidence, that such a land there once was. 
