Rev. P. Mearns on the Kaim at Warh. 229 



world {LyelVs Manual, 143). The block of granite on which 

 the equestrian statue of Peter the Great stands in St. Peters- 

 burg is the largest ever moved by man. Its weight is vari- 

 ously estimated from 800 tons to 1200, but it is little more 

 than half the size of the Pierre a Bot. 



When an iceberg melts in the ocean its burden of boulders, 

 sand, and gravel falls to the bottom, and is subjected to 'the 

 action of currents. How far these currents may have been 

 modified by the high bank of shale on the Tweed, which is 

 about 60 feet at its highest point above the surface of the 

 river, and by the Shedlaw heights on the south, so as to 

 raise the kaim at Wark, I cannot determine. Something, 

 however, may be inferred from the form of the ridge. It 

 undoubtedly owes its origin to drift, and the strata have 

 been formed by the great wave of an ancient marine fiord 

 ere the ground was raised and the sea retired, leaving the 

 lovely valley through which our noble river now flows. This 

 agrees well with the gradual slope on the side towards the 

 more tranquil waters that filled the south valley. 



It is stated by Lyell of the Oasars of Sweden, which may 

 often be traced for many leagues through the country, that 

 "in places where they are composed of large rounded 

 boulders, of about the size of a man's head, no stratification 

 is observable ; but where, as is more usual, they consist of 

 gravel and fine sand, they are invariahly stratified in the 

 same manner as sand and gravel in the beds of rivers." 

 (Quoted in Mr. Home's Geology of Roxburgh.) Many of 

 the boulders in Wark Kaim are much larger than a man's 

 head ; some of the chert limestone appear to be about half a 

 ton in weight; but as the stratification is distinct, it differs 

 in this respect from the ridges of Sweden. Two of these 

 boulders in the bottom of the gravel pit* measure respec- 

 tively — one is 2 feet 10 inches long by 2 feet 1 inch, and 1 

 foot — the other 2 feet 3 inches long by 2 feet, and 1 foot. 



I have been more careful to state facts than to discuss 

 theories regarding the process by which kaims have been 

 formed. Facts are eternal, but theories must be modified or 

 perhaps entirely abandoned as new facts are discovered help- 

 ing us to explain those previously ascertained. It is easier 

 to state plausible theories than by a careful induction to 

 advance slowly to the principles which explain ascertained 

 facts ; just as we find in every nursery that a child can run 



* Now in the Manse Garden, behind the West Church, Coldstream. 



