102 A RAMBLE UP BURNHOPE, 



crumbled away, leaving the sandstone strata unsupported, 

 and large blocks had slid down the talus of shale on to the 

 edge of the burn. I could find no trace of fossils in the 

 shales, but there were numerous nodules, showing rings of the 

 bright yellow particles of the sulphuret of iron. Among the 

 debris were many rounded and somewhat flattened stones, 

 scratched all over with unmistakeable glacial strise. They 

 certainly had not come from the shale. Evidently there was 

 a deposit of boulder clay on the bank above the sandstone, 

 out of which these striated stones had fallen. And as my eye 

 travelled to the hills around, my thoughts travelled backwards 

 some hundreds of thousands of years, and I seemed to rise 

 above those hills, and to be standing on a vast undulating 

 field of ice which stretched far as the eye could reach. And 

 then the wide expanse seemed to be melting away, and black 

 fines, the tops of the hills, showed themselves radiating away 

 from the central icefield. And then the ice-streams seemed 

 to melt away from the coast, and gradually up the valleys, 

 leaving behind them a great sheet of debris constantly 

 diminishing in thickness as the length of the glacier decreased, 

 and therefore the length of the gathering area for the moraine 

 — the rubbish tip at the end of the glacier. 



The right bank of the burn was rough and dirty, so I made 

 my way through the fields towards Burnhope, a group of two 

 or three houses near the three-arched bridge, that carries the 

 road from Burtreeford across the stream. 



Two splendid black-faced rams, with great curling horns 

 and long shaggy fleeces, were in the field. I approached 

 them with caution, for they are sometimes dangerous 

 customers, and I had no fancy for making a close 

 acquaintance with their formidable prongs. A shout from 

 the hillside, " They're quite quiet," reassured me, and I could 

 admire their fine proportions in peace, and even get a poor 

 snap at them with the camera. 



Crossing the main road, a cart track led up the left bank. 

 Here the bed of the burn was broad and filled with large 

 stones, but no rock was showing. So I passed on and soon 



