Scenery of Scotland. 295 



Scotland that I know, are the conglomerates (made of 

 the waste of the older Silurian mountains) more strik- 

 ing than in this region, and the glacial origin of some 

 of them to my mind is unmistakable, especially on the 

 shores of the Beauly Firth near Drynie. All the em- 

 bedded stones have been derived from the old Silurian 

 mountains, some of them are from four to five feet in 

 diameter, and many of them are subangular in shape, 

 just like the boulders in much of the glacial detritus 

 of what is ordinarily called the Glacial epoch. 



In time, the Old Eed Sandstone period came to an 

 end, and above that series for it consists of two 

 members, the upper member of which lies unconform- 

 ably on the lower the Carboniferous rocks were formed. 

 The whole were then again disturbed together a dis- 

 turbance not confined to Scotland only, but embracing 

 large European and other areas. 



But before the deposition of the Old Red and Car- 

 boniferous series, there is reason to believe that a wide 

 and deep valley already existed between the Grampian 

 mountains and the Carrick, Lammermuir, and Moorfoot 

 range ; and in this hollow the Old Red Sandstone was 

 deposited, partly derived from the waste of the Silurian 

 hills on the north and south. But by-and-by, as depo- 

 sition progressed, the land began to sink on the south, 

 and the upper strata of Old Red Sandstone overlapped 

 the lower beds, and began, as it were, to creep south- 

 wards across the Lammermuir Hills, which, sinking still 

 further, were in turn invaded by the lower Coal-mea- 

 sures and Carboniferous Limestone series. It appears, 

 therefore, from a consideration of all the circumstances 

 connected with the physical relations of the strata, that 

 the Coal-measures once spread right across the Lam- 

 mermuir range, and were united to the Carboniferous 



