DUMFRIES-SHIRE. 



195 



Dumfries- 

 shire. 



Miueralo- 

 gical sur- 

 eys. 



Trarsition 



Coal for- 

 mation. 



Trap. 



ww of the 

 tincture. 



7 19 in each of the two battalions of ten companies, 

 first of the Nithsdale, and, secondly, of the Annandale 

 and Eskdale local militia, in all 1958 men ; which, with 

 284 men serving for this country in the regular militia, 

 amount in whole to 2'2i2 men, as the domestic or de- 

 fensive force of the county This number, added to 

 the last population list, raises the total number to 65,025 

 souls, not including those who serve in the regular 

 army or the navy. 



The mineralogical structure of Dumfries-shire has 

 been repeatedly surveyed. Professor Jameson publish- 

 ed a survey in 1805, which having been designed as 

 the first part of a general survey of Scotland, was drawn 

 up on a plan suited for that purpose. Previous to that 

 scientific survey, the county gentlemen, in 1SOO, had 

 engaged Messrs Busby, coal viewers from Northum- 

 berland, to make a practical survey ; and some direc- 

 tions having been prepared by the late Dr Walker and 

 also by Mr Jameson, the county meeting of Dumfries 

 gave instructions to the Messrs Busby, and they m-ide 

 their survey and report in 1 800, which was published 

 by Dr Singer in the Appendix of his Agricultural Sur- 

 vey 1812. Major General Dirom of Mount Annan 

 having suggested these useful undertakings, as proper 

 to accompany the map of the county prepared i y Mr 

 W. Crawford, he also formed a table with sections of 

 the mineralogical structure of Dumfries-shire, which 

 was added to the other engravings on that map, and 

 contains a very distinct and intelligent abstract. But 

 few counties have been surveyed of late years, with 

 more general attention than Dumfries-shire; a great 

 deal of useful information was communicated by the 

 Busbys, and also in General Dirom's table, and in the 

 work published by Professor Jameson, all in succession ; 

 and yet, after all, the field of investigation appears to 

 be little more than opened. The discovery of coal and 

 lime in various districts where these mineral treasures 

 are much wanted, remains yet to be made ; and no 

 roof slate or metallic repositories have been opened in 

 consequence of the late surveys. 



According to Professor Jameson, nearly the whole 

 of the upper part of this county is composed of transi- 

 tion rocks. Among these, he particularly observed 

 grey-wacke, greenstone, and flinty-alum, or grey- 

 wacke-slate. These rooks he considers the oldest in 

 the county, and the basis of all the newer forma- 

 tions. 



Next in point of age he reckons the independent 

 coal formation, which pervades the low part of the 

 country, disposed in strati from the Nith to the Esk, 

 over the transition rocks ; or lying in hollows of these 

 rocks, as at Sanquhar, Closeburn near Dumfries, at 

 WhitehiU, Balik-n.ig, Corncockle Muir, Chapel Hill by 

 Moffat, and raiinbic. 



The newest of the universal formations he states to 

 be the flcetz trap, covering sometimes the transition 

 rocks, and sometimes the independent coal formation ; 

 and consisting in the lower parts of the county, of por- 

 phyritic greenstone and amygdaloid from the bridge of 

 Langholm to Denbie ; while, in the upper parts, (a* 

 between Wamphray and Langholrn,) it lies on the sum- 

 mit of transition mountains, generally in the shape of 

 mountain caps, blackish pitchstone being subordinate 

 to it. 



Of that arrangement of compound minerals which 

 divides them into five classes, (viz. the primitive, the 

 transition, stratified or secondary class, the alluvial, and 

 the volcanic,) the first and last classes of rocks do not 

 seem to have presented themselves in this county. The 



transition mountains are of great extent ; the secondary Dumfries- 

 strata run up the three principal valleys to the very shire. 

 bases of those mountains ; and the alluvial class em- """Y""" 

 braces a variety of soils, the most remarkable of which 

 are the haugh or holm lands, near the rivers, and some 

 fields of sleech near the sea. The practical coal view- 

 ers have not made any other distinction than into the 

 primitive or primary rocks, and the secondary or stra- 

 tified. 



From the rocky faces and broken scars of the princi- 

 pal mountains, their conformation seems to be similar 

 in them all. Wacken and trap are the rocks which pre- 

 vail, with slate of different characters. Near the bases 

 of the largest mountains, beds of ferruginous clay ap- 

 pear, and masses of conglomerate occasionally present 

 themselves, with black shistus resembling coal blaes, 

 though not containing bitumen, but smelling of sulphur, 

 as black ore of copper does. Here also chalybeate wa- 

 ters frequently issue in springs. 



The mines of Wanlockhead are computed as yielding Lead mines. 

 about L. 30,000 worth of lead annually, one-sixth of 

 which belongs to the Duke of Buccleuch, as the supe- 

 rior and proprietor. The produce in 18<18 was 15,552 

 bars, of nine stones avoirdupois each bar; and the 

 price for that year was L. 32 per ton. It has been said 

 that the mines of Leadhills in Lanarkshire, and of Wan- 

 lockhead in this county, which are near each other in 

 the same range of mountains, were "opened in conse- 

 quence of a discovery by one Martin Templeton in 

 1517 ; but others believe them to have been open of a 

 much older date ; and some think they may have been 

 known even to the Romans, whose public roads pass- 

 ed near those mountains, and who might the more 

 readily have known of the veins, as most of them have 

 appeared on the surface. It is the more probable, 

 since two lead bars are said to exist still, which had 

 been worked by the Romans, and are marked with the 

 date and the name of the emperor, the one at Ripley, 

 and the other in the British museum. A drift was 

 opened in search of copper and lead, in the mountains 

 near Hartfell, many years ago, without success. 



It is now of particular im]x>rtance to open slate quar- 

 ries in the districts remote from the sea. The very su- 

 perior slates of Lancashire, betwixt prime cost, and 

 land and water carriage, are very expensive. Gleno- 

 char is remote, and the slate is rather toft, and not al- 

 ways to be obtained; 



Among the secondary strata which are found in Coal pits.. 

 most of the lower parts of this county, coal is worked 

 at Sanquhar and Kirkconnel, in the north western part 

 of the county, towards the head of Nithsdale; and also 

 in the parish of C'unoby, in the south-eastern parts, 

 near the lower part of Eskdale. It is unfortunately 

 not found in the neighbourhood of the greatest popu- 

 lation ; nor at C'losrlmrn, or Kelhead, near the principal 

 quarries of limestone. The upper districts of Annan- 

 dale and Eskdale, which are very remote from the sea, 

 feel exceedingly the want of coal and lime ; the mere 

 carriage of a single cart load of the former now costing 

 at least fifteen, and of the latter twelve shillings. The 

 last boring in this county was lately made in the vici- 

 nity of Moffat, in search of coal. It was put down 

 about 1 00 feet, mostly at the expence of the ordinary 

 inhabitants, and went through various thick seams of 

 red sand stone. This colour has been commonly held 

 as an unfavourable sign of coal ; but it has been un- 

 derstood of late, both from concurring facts, and the 

 admissions of men eminent for mineralogical science, 

 that coal does really associate with red sandstone. The 



