220 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY IN SCOTLAA D CHAP, vn 



of the Carboniferous system, and, working gradually 

 westwards, might clear the way for the further prosecu- 

 tion of the work by his staff next year. His rambles 

 led him into some of the lonely valleys of the Lammer- 

 muir Hills and along the picturesque shores of East 

 Lothian. He had had no quiet geological work in 

 Scotland since his old Arran days, and there was so 

 much of interest and novelty in thus breaking ground 

 for the Geological Survey of Scotland that, repressing 

 his strong desire to be back once more with his 

 young wife and children, he persevered with the 

 work until the keen frosts of December drove him at 

 last southward. A few pictures of this working- 

 season at Dunbar may be gleaned from his letters to 

 Mrs. Ramsay. 



' The Old Red Conglomerate here [among the 

 Lammermuir Hills] is the most wonderful deposit I ever 

 saw, and horribly icy-looking. It is so soft, too, you 

 might dig it out with a pickaxe. The greater part of it 

 is almost indistinguishable from Drift. Examine the 

 enclosed stones and give me an account of their 

 colours. Merely write me their colours and then throw 

 them away. Whatever colours they are, it does not in 

 any way affect my mapping, but it would be a satis- 

 faction to be certified on the subject. Are they grey 

 mostly, and is there any purple and green ? * They 

 are fragments from the stones that make up this 

 tremendous brecciated conglomerate on which I walked 

 on Friday all day without any prospect of getting to 

 the end of it. It forms great wild, heathy hills, 

 stretching far away south into Berwickshire. It is so 



1 In explanation of these directions it requires to be stated that Ramsay was 

 to a considerable extent ' colour-blind. ' He was often made conscious of this 

 defect when discussing the Survey maps with his colleagues, for he could not dis- 

 tinguish between some of the colours, reds and greens being especially mistaken. 





