PREFACE. Xlll 



botanical habitat is Buncle wood, a tract of ground about 100 

 acres in extent, and finely varied for the Botanist by smooth 

 green turf, wild moor, and marsh. 



" Proceeding still towards the east by Edincraw and Reston 

 we arrive, after a mile or two, at the beautiful valley, extend- 

 ing, in a northerly direction, from Houndwood to Cockburns- 

 path. The greater part of this valley is watered by the small 

 river Eye ; the whole bed of which, from its rise to its fall, ap- 

 pears to consist of grey wacke, and its accompanying grey wacke 

 slate, with subordinate rocks of trap. Beds of peat, too, of con- 

 siderable thickness, occur in the bottom of this hollow, and ex- 

 tend for several miles beyond Houndwood and Renton Inns- 

 The sides of the valley now noticed are lofty, and beautifully 

 adorned, especially on its eastern side, by natural woods and 

 extensive plantations. The rocks are all transition. Towards 

 the northern end we come to the Pease or Peath's Burn, along 

 whose steep banks, and underneath the magnificent arch of 

 whose bridge we pass, till we arrive, in a short time, at its 

 mouth, and the shores of the German Ocean. 



" From this our course is naturally directed eastward along 

 the coast, the whole line of which, for many miles, is very lofty, 

 naked, and precipitous. Not having examined the whole of it with 

 any thing like minute attention, it may be simply sufficient to 

 mention, that, throughout the greater part of its extent, from 

 this point to the promontory of St Abb's, the rocks appear to 

 be still grey wacke and greywacke slate, the former being fre- 

 que^itly broken in pyramids and insulated masses by the vio- 

 lence of the waves, and often exhibiting very curious and sin- 

 gular distortions in position and in stratification. The most 

 interesting and striking object between the two points now al- 



