invoked in the Uplands. But the theory was almost too ingenious 

 and it involved a complicated series of migrations, the mechanism 

 for which it was almost impossible to imagine. 



Lapworth's field work showed bit by bit that the foundations 

 on which such conclusions rested were unsound, and at the same 

 time placed our knowledge of the Southern Uplands in a position 

 of remarkable exactitude. It went further, and established a 

 host of facts and a number of new principles which have proved 

 to be far-ranging in application. 



I. Galashiels. 



Lapworth's field work had probably begun in 1866, but as a 

 serious study it dates from 1869, and reached the stage of first 

 publication in 1870, when a paper on the Lower Silurian Rocks of 

 Galashiels (i)* was read to the Edinburgh Geological Society. From 

 this we gather that he had detected the intense disturbances which 

 had affected the rocks. He had found many fossils in strata 

 supposed to be barren and unpromising, and had begun to realise 

 that these fossils would be of considerable assistance in his work. 

 He had also seen that the Gala Series was a large and united 

 Formation bearing similar monoprionidian graptolites from base 

 to summit, very different from the more varied graptolite fauna 

 of the black shales in the underlying Moffat Series. Many of the 

 Moffat Shale graptolites are peculiar to the Llandeilo, others are 

 found in the Coniston group ; while the whole of the Gala forms 

 have been found in the ' Coniston Series,' and in the Upper Silurian 

 of Bohemia. From this he concluded that the Gala Series was 

 of Caradoc age. This last view, though it has proved erroneous, 

 was inevitable at this time, as the opinion held by Nicholson, and 

 others who had worked on them, was that the * Coniston Flags ' 

 belonged to this period. In a further paper (4) read at the British 

 Association at Edinburgh, twenty Gala species are recorded, two 

 being new to science. 



2. The Moffat Area. 



A very important paper (2) by James Wilson and Lapworth, in 

 1871, records the result of three years' work. The great significance 

 of the graptolites is now well recognised. The shales, the most 

 important part of the Moffat series, are spoken of as the " metropolis 

 of the graptolites of Scotland," and the authors feel bound to say, 

 f" These peculiar creatures have never yet received the attention 

 they deserve, and those of Britain have been treated so carelessly 

 that the real horizon of some of the species cannot be even guessed 

 at." Forty species of graptolites are recognised from the Moffat 



* Figures in brackets refer to the list of published works set out on pages 

 49-51, in order of date. f 2, p. 463. 



