Botanical and Zoological Observations, 231 



question here is not the formation of alluvial beds by a river, 

 but the carrying off of superfluous gravel in order to the 

 formation of a ridge. 



2. The same argument is equally applicable to the north 

 side ; but in order to fluviatile action there, we must suppose 

 that the course of the river was some 30 or 40 feet higher 

 than at present, which may surely be regarded as fatal to 

 the theory. 



I find myself drifting to the conclusion that the ridge 

 owes its origin and present form to currents in a former sea. 



In land floods we occasionally see striking illustrations of 

 the power of currents. There is a small stream which 

 descends rapidly from the neighbouring hills, and enters the 

 sea two miles west of Dunbar. The heavy rain which fell 

 on the Lammermuirs on the 29th of Sept., 1846, swelled it 

 to a torrent, and the small bridge, where it is crossed by the 

 then recently formed North British Railway, was insufficient 

 even with its dry arch (meant only for extraordinary occa- 

 sions), to allow a free passage for its vraters, which were 

 speedily pent up behind it; and just as the train, in which 

 I happened to be travelling, was about to cross it, and the 

 guards were consulting with the surfacemen about the pro- 

 priety of doing so, the whole bridge was swept away before 

 our eyes, large stones being tossed to a distance as a play- 

 thing by the turbulent torrent. 



In the operation of such existing agencies as we have now 

 specified, we have no very remote analogy to the currents 

 by which kaims have been formed, though we may have 

 some difficulty in determining the local circumstances by 

 which these currents were controlled and guided. 



Miscellaneous Botanical and Zoological Observations, 

 I, Notes hy William Boyd. 



At the Meeting of the Club held in June last at St. Abb's 

 Head, the following plants were noticed : — 



Arenaria verna ; Silene maritima and Sedum Rhodiola, 

 both in great profusion, attracting general attention from the 

 large clusters of white flowers of the one, and the unusually 

 large green branches of the other, growing out of the crevices 

 of the precipitous rocks overhanging the sea. 



On my way to the Rothbury Meeting, JSpipactis latifolia 



2g 



