226 Rev. P. Mearns on the Kaim at Warh. 



gravel. In the upper part of this large stratum I observed a 

 well-rounded, because far-travelled boulder of conglomerate, 

 and close beside it a square block of sandstone from the 

 neighbourhood. In the centre were clusters of the size and 

 shape of cocoa nuts, and some of the size of the human head. 

 Beneath these stones was a layer of pure sharp sand, about 

 six inches in depth. 



Thus have I described about ten feet of perpendicular 

 depth, including nine layers more or less distinct. Each of 

 these strata has a history. With the exception of the chert 

 limestone, which is found about a mile to the west, and 

 sandstone from the neighbourhood (there being very few 

 blocks of the latter) none of the stones is found in the im- 

 mediate locality in situ. Some bear marks of having 

 travelled far, and having been long tossed in an ancient sea. 

 We naturally propose the questions — ^Whence have they 

 come ? and by what agency were they carried? 



We are able to answer in general that they have all come 

 from the west. This we know not so much from the nature 

 of the stones as the direction of the current. That the cur- 

 rent was from the west is argued, not from the course of the 

 river, but from the drift all around.* For instance, no 

 boulders or fragments of chert limestone are to be seen west 

 of Nottylees, where this limestone is found in situ ; but they 

 are in great abundance to the east, on the farms of Shedlaw 

 and Wark. Fragments of jasper, from nodules in this lime- 

 stone — some of them dimly translucent, with great variety 

 of colour — are frequently picked up by the people employed 

 on these farms, and regarded by some as natural productions 

 of the soil. This is very much in the manner of Topsy in 

 TJncle Tom's Cabin, whose only answer to the inquiry 

 respecting her origin was, " Spects I growed." There are 

 beds of limestone at Shedlaw and Nottylees, about a mile 

 distant from each other ; and midway between, there is a 

 trap rock over which large boulders were carried by the cur- 

 rent. Not one is found on the west side of this rock, but 

 many fell on the east side of it, the force of the current 

 having been broken by the projecting trap. We have an 

 admirable exhibition of this fact on the Kelso branch of the 

 North Eastern Railway, within a few yards of Carham Burn, 

 "which divides the two kingdoms, where the railway cuts 



* Mr. Milne Home, in his Geology of Berwickshire, proves that the prevailing 

 current of the diluvial viraters in Berwickshire was from the west, (pp. 226-229). 



