Rev. John Walker on Greenlaw. 119 



towards the farm of Harlaw, they pass through Hexpath 

 Dean and the mosses there, and Crosbie and Legerwood 

 Mosses, and the parallel mosses of Gordon and East and West 

 Morriston to Purveshaugh near Earlstoun. 



The trap dyke which forms the eastern side of the Hexpath 

 Dean is loaded heavily with the drift of which these kaims 

 are composed, and we are at once satisfied with the reason 

 that appears and accounts for this. The wall of whinstone 

 arrested and protected, just as the field of wood on a line with 

 it would do, the debris which a current of water applied to it. 



But if a mass of wood may thus, like a rock face, shelter 

 and arrest the debris which running water lodges behind it, 

 then, it seems evident that as the wood decays and becomes 

 depressed from its first level and consolidates, a change will 

 gradually be effected in the drift deposit which partly leans 

 upon it. Gravitation will cause such a change in the kaim 

 as may be required to adjust it to its altered relations. And 

 it is the evidence of this change perfectly open to observation, 

 which first satisfied me years ago, of the correctness of the 

 theory which I desire to bring into discussion. 



Beautifully stratified as these kaims are when the sub- 

 stance of them consists of sand or minute gravel — distinctly 

 often, as in the stripes of a ribbon, in the centre, and on the 

 side away from the moss ; on the side next the moss the 

 strata are mingled together and undistinguishable ; and while 

 examining the deposit in vain for shells, I ha\e been sur- 

 prised at the depth at which observed contents of the upper 

 strata were found. 



Stones too, of very considerable size, and oblong shape, are 

 plentifully found in that evidently moved portion of the 

 kaim, not as water would certainly at first deposit them, but 

 standing on end, and even frequently inclining outwards, 

 shewing both that there has been a movement and that the 

 mass of matter adjusting itself has been considerable. 



The kaim, as a further proof of adjustment, overlaps the 

 moss, its outer edge rests on the underlying peat. 



Again, if the kaim was formed by water in the manner 

 which my observations lead me to defend — for the theory is 

 not mine — then the present height of the kaim may be taken 

 to indicate the comparative depth of the deposit of moss which 

 it skirts. And this is believed to be the case. The deepest 

 part of the moss is understood to be that which belongs to 

 the Parish of Polwarth to the south of Cattleshiel, where the 

 kaim is higher than at any other part of the Dogden deposit. 



