MR BAIRD ON THE "FAIRY STONES." 75 



collectors in the bed of the stream, and from their singular shapes and 

 equivocal sort of origin, have most probably given the name of the 

 " Fairy Dean " to the little valley in which they are usually found. 

 These stones are well known to the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, 

 and seem to be regarded by many with no small veneration. "Well 

 known, however, though they are, I have not been able, except in one 

 trifling book, to meet with a single notice or remark upon the subject. 

 This book I do not now remember the title of, but its object, as far as 

 I can at present recollect, is to serve as a guide to strangers visiting 

 the neighbourhood of Melrose and Abbotsford. In this little work, 

 the author sums up both his description of the external appearance of 

 these stones, and his opinion of their origin, in two short lines. 

 " Here occur," says he, " some curiously shaped stones, which are said 

 to be found after great falls of rain ;" " and which are justly sup- 

 posed," as he adds in a note, "to be the petrifactions of some mineral 

 spring hard by." "Whether this supposition was the author's own in- 

 vention or not, or whether, along with his own, he expressed the 

 opinion of any other observers, I know not ; but I fear the explanation 

 which he offers, will hardly satisfy those who examine these sub- 

 stances even with the most common attention. They evidently bear 

 no earthly similitude to a "petrifaction" (if that word at least is to 

 be understood in its proper meaning), and I know of no " mineral 

 spring hard by " possessing any such qualification as that alleged. 

 This idea, therefore, appearing so unsatisfactory, it will be necessary 

 to have recourse to some other explanation ; and accordingly, on talk- 

 ing over the subject with some acquaintances, I have heard two other 

 opinions upon the subject, which I shall next very shortly notice. 

 The one is, that they may have been originally portions of a soft clay 

 rock, occurring somewhere towards the head of the glen, which, having 

 been detached from their native situation by the action of the stream 

 or weather, had gradually been worn into their present fantastic 

 shapes by simple attrition in the channel of the rivulet : and the 

 other, which, before visiting the scene personally, I was inclined to 

 think sufficiently satisfactory, is, that they may have been originally 

 imbedded portions or nodules contained in an amygdaloidal rock, that 

 is to say, nodules of fine clay, which, by infiltration from above, had 

 gradually found their way into the cavities with which that kind of 

 rock abounds, and which, partly by the influence of the weather, and 

 partly by the occasional violence of the water, had been forcibly dis- 

 engaged, and carried down into the bed of the stream where we now 

 find them. Neither of these opinions do I now consider as correct ; 

 for, with regard to the former supposition, if they were merely portions 

 of a clay rock, formed into their present shapes by simple attrition 

 and the unceasing flow of the waters over them, why, it might be 

 asked, do we not find such stones in every similar situation where clay 

 rocks occur? and why should the Allan Water manufacture such 



