﻿158 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Feb. 5, 



To what extent the strata of this formation may undulate or be 

 repeated, from the parallel of Stranraer towards the bay of Luce on 

 the south, I had no means of determining. The country so declines 

 in altitude, and its outlines are so rounded off, that, except in the sea- 

 cliffs of the Mull of Galloway, little can, I apprehend, be learned. 

 There, I am informed by Mr. J. Carrick Moore, some reversed dips 

 occur, together with igneous rocks. 



Having passed by Glen Luce, however, and thence eastwards by 

 Newton Stewart, across the granitic region of Cairn's Muir, Prof. 

 Nicol and myself then traversed the whole series by proceeding from 

 New Galloway to Castle Douglas and Kircudbright and Balmae Head. 

 In that section we were satisfied, that the same strata were repeated, 

 both in numerous undulations and also by longitudinal faults. Thus, 

 the larger portion of Galloway, wherever granite and porphyry do 

 not intrude, presents a monotony of outline which is essentially due 

 to the undulation of the same soft decomposing schists which I am 

 disposed to refer to the lowest members of the Upper Silurian rocks. 



Advancing from New Galloway to the south, and as soon as we 

 were free from the local influence of the granite of Cairn's Muir, we 

 found numberless low ledges of greywacke schist trending chiefly from 

 E.N.E. to "W.S.W., in some of which the beds dipped south, in 

 others north ; the latter dip prevailing. This also obtains near Castle 

 Douglas ; and that the same undulations continue to Kircudbright is 

 plainly seen in the bed of the transverse-flowing river Dee, which 

 often exposes strata dipping both N. and S. In this manner we 

 reached one of the southernmost headlands of the Scottish shore 

 without being able to affirm that we were in strata of younger or 

 older age than those we left at New Galloway on the north. 



In Balmae Head itself, which Mr. Nicol and myself examined*, 

 there are the same repetitions with many fractures. Fortunately 

 so many fossils have been found in this place by Mr. Fleming of 

 Kircudbright and others, that but little doubt can remain concerning 

 the age of these rocks. The examination indeed of these Kircudbright 

 fossils by Mr. Salter indicates that those beds could not be older 

 than the Wenlock shale f . Prof. M'Coy has identified two from the 

 same locality with Trenton Limestone species of N. America, but 

 with a mark of doubt, and one, Leptcena alternate/, without doubt J. 



They differ so essentially from the fossils of the Stinchar and 

 Girvan banks, that one can hardly hesitate in considering these strata 

 of Kircudbright as superior to those of the Ayrshire group. Nor 

 is there any extraordinary thickness of strata to impede our arriving 

 at this conclusion ; seeing that, by undulation and repetition through 

 fracture, all the sedimentary deposits of Wigton, Galloway, and Kir- 



* The Earl of Selkirk, F.G.S., proprietor of Balmae Head and the adjacent 

 country, informed me some years ago of the discovery of certain Orthoceratites, 

 among which I then recognised the 0. annulatum and other Wenlock shale types, 

 and from that moment I had little doubt that the rocks were Upper Silurian. His 

 lordship has recently sent me a few other fossils, collected by Mr. Fleming, which 

 confirm the views of Mr. Salter. 



f See List of Fossils, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. iv. p. 206, and vol. vii. pp. 

 54, 55. % Report Brit. Assoc. for 1850, p. 107. 



