PHYSIOGNOMY OF THE LOTHIANS. 117 



same description, compactly held together by a basis of 

 calcareous sinter. 



In several places around the coast of the Lothians, sands, 

 a considerable number of feet above the level of the Firth 

 of Forth, have been found, containing shells of species at 

 present existing, and the position of these has been explained 

 by supposing that there has, in this district, been, within a 

 very modern epoch, an elevation of the land. That some 

 of these deposits of existing shells are in situations relative 

 to the sea, which its present level and other circumstances 

 seem inadequate to place them in, we may at once affirm ; 

 but there certainly seems to be no reason why such appear- 

 ances should be referred to a rising of the land, rather than 

 to a local recession of the sea ; and if we consider the estu- 

 arial character of the firth, perhaps the latter may be most 

 likely. 



In all countries composed of several distinct rock-forma- 

 tions, it is invariably found, that each one exhibits on the 

 great scale a certain range of characters ; — the hills have a 

 peculiar form, the cliffs a certain style of fracture, the valleys 

 a particular mode of grouping with other characteristic fea- 

 tures. In the transition or greywacke range, which forms the 

 southern highland of this district, there is, in the outline of 

 the mountains, an appearance perfectly distinct from that 

 presented by any other elevated country in the Lothians. 

 When viewed from a distance, the hills have a gently undu- 

 lating contour; all are more or less round backed, and are ge- 

 nerally covered to the summit with vegetable soil ; while, in 

 some instances, by the disintegration of the strata, they are 

 strewed with an infinity of masses of greywacke and slate, af- 

 fording a barren and uninteresting surface of light grey rocks. 

 The valleys in the transition country are in general of limited 



