Revicirs — The Survei/ Jleiiwir on the Seottinh Uplands. 513 



All the forej!;oiiig cliapters may V'e regarded as introUustory to 

 tbe main purpose of the volume, namely, the detailed descrip ion 

 of the geology of the several districts that make up the Upland 

 region as a whole, and the systematic demonstration, stage by stage, 

 of the true succession of its recognizable formations, and their 

 regional variations, characteristic organic remains, and tectonic 

 development. This occupies the main body of the w^ork from the 

 beginning of Chapter V to the end of Chapter XXIV. 



These chapters are illustrated by more than a hundred sketoh- 

 plans and sections, scattered through the letter-press, prepared by 

 Mr. Peach from the field observations of himself and Mr. Home. 

 These figures exemplify the large amount of detailed work demanded 

 in the zonal mapping of a country so complicated as that of the 

 Southern Uplands, and numerous as they are, probably not one of 

 them could have been dispensed with. As a finished model for 

 workers in the zonal methods of geology, we doubt whether 

 anything could excel the sketch-plans of Rae Grain (Craigmichau 

 Scaurs) (p. 102), of Morroch Bay (p. 402), and of the Ballantrae 

 Coast line (p. 433) ; or the sections of Rae Grain (p. 104) and 

 Bennane Coast (p. 434) ; or, perhaps most remarkable of all, the 

 sketch-plan and section of Lorg Burn (p. 359). These sketch-plans 

 and sections, insignificant as might appear to the older geologists 

 to be the extent of ground illustrated by each — sometimesonly a lew 

 thousands of square yards in extent — are not only of vital con- 

 sequence in the development of detailed local successions, but they 

 present in miniature, again and again, many of the tectonic phenomena 

 characteristic of the region as a whole. 



Where so much has been given in this department, it is perhaps 

 ungracious to expect more, but when we look at the sketch-map of 

 the Ettrickbridge-end exposure on p. 121, good as it is, we must 

 confess to a feeling of disappointment. It is evident that this 

 miniature plan affords but a very inadequate idea of the care, time, 

 and labour which must have been expended by the Survey officers 

 on this locality. There is no exposure in the country to the east 

 of the Moffat district so vital for purposes of correlation as the one 

 at this spot; and I know, from personal experience, there is not one 

 which is so difficult of accurate interpretation and representation in 

 detail. The Survey work here has been done so thoi'oughly that it 

 is well worthy of a double-page map and corresponding sections. 



These chapter's upon the detailed geology commence with 

 a description of the typical area of the Moffat district, as aff"ording 

 the natural key to the complicated stratigraphy of the Uplands as 

 a whole. The entire sequence of the zones of the Moffat Series 

 is redemonstrated and the published nomenclature accepted. But 

 with the confidence generated by the successful testing and retesting 

 of the zonal methods, the officers of the Survey not only simplify 

 the detailed sections across the typical exposures, but carry more 

 or less generalized sections boldly across country from exposure 

 to exposure. They illustrate the type localities of Dobb's Linn 

 and Craigmichan Scaurs by several new sections, the former by an 



DECADE IV. — VOL. YI. — NO. XX. 33 



