Notes on Maxton, by the Rev. M. H. Graham. 223 



east on the river, and below the school-house, are sandstone 

 rocks altered by heat. Right below the manse and overhanging 

 the river, is a sort of clinkstone (phonolite). At Craigour, we 

 have a rock akin to basalt ; and below the school-house, a 

 trap-porphyry, which has burst through the sandstone strata 

 and displaced them. In fact, the trap-porphyry overlapped 

 these strata before it was quarried down for road-metal ; and 

 even still it may be seen in one spot, There is amygdaloidal 

 porphyry on the Killaw at Muirhouselaw. In boring some 

 fields opposite Broomhouse, trap was found at the depth of 

 20 feet. In sinking a well at the manse, I was interrupted 

 by phonolite at the depth of 20 feet ; and so, from these and 

 other considerations, we are led to conclude that the depth 

 of red sandstone- in this parish is far from being great. 

 In tirling a quarry close by the manse, several pieces of splint 

 or cannel-coal were found on the rough surface of the rock. 

 The edges of these pieces were rounded, as if rolled by water, 

 and they were not lying in situ. May not these fragments, 

 as Mr Chisholm suggests, have come from the Lothian s, or 

 more probably, from Lesmahago ? And may not, he further 

 suggests, these layers of coal which were found in sinking a 

 well at Longnewton forest (2 miles south-west of us), and which 

 gave rise to some recondite speculation, may not this coal have 

 drifted in the same manner ? 



Instead of discussing this daring conception, I must hasten 

 on. Our circular states that " looking out for spring flowers 

 and insects " will form a feature in our day's saunter. 1 

 hope you will be more successful than I have been in finding 

 them ; and, as I have already too much presumed on your 

 indulgence, I shall leave the prosecution of this branch of 

 industry to my brother naturalists. They will find a con- 

 siderable variety of plants in the glens, through which I pro- 

 pose to conduct a party, though not in a very favourable 

 condition for inspection or preservation. Among them are : 

 March, or sweet-scented violets, in profusion ; the common 

 violet ; wild garlic, in a burn near Littledean ; the poisonous 

 hemlock ; the maiden-hair spleenwort ; and, perhaps, if 

 we are very wide-awake, the maiden pink, which elsewhere 

 is seen adorning Smailholm Tower and Minto Crags. As to 

 the insects, I should like that the entomologists would assist 

 such of us as affect horticulture, to expiscate and to extirpate 

 a little wretch, which, of recent years,, has attacked and eaten 

 the life out of the leaves of the pear. I saw it first of all some 



