374 Mr Hardy on Langleyford Vale and the Cftemots. 



of attention. The circumstances under which they were 

 formed, and are forming, are here laid open ; and the great 

 depth to which disintegration has penetrated far down the 

 solid rock is very remarkable. At the top, we have the 

 boulder-clay finely comminuted, intermingled with the re- 

 mains of boulders of the common rock of the hills not yet 

 completely crumbled down ; and underneath this, another 

 stratum of fine clay, having at its base angular wasted frag- 

 ments of the subjacent rock. This itself, in a discoloured 

 state, with its white crystals of soda-felspar still preserved, 

 appears in its external original entireity ; but being struck 

 by a hammer, it is found to be converted into a mass of damp 

 clay, not differing from the incoherent materials above it. 

 We have thus represented to us, going on before our eyes, 

 the decayed condition which the surface of those hills would 

 have acquired during the ages preceding the era of boulders ; 

 and we also here learn whence came the clays, which being 

 then excavated, and borne away and distributed over the 

 lowlands, constitute a large proportion of the present agri- 

 cultural soils. These are now again here being stored up 

 anew, but in their present untempered condition are un- 

 available for the production of useful vegetation. 



Gladly now the eye is turned to the pygmy groves and 

 scattered trees, that form so many old-fashioned pictures of 

 landscapes in miniature, suspended on the face of Hedgehope. 

 Were they ever more numerous, and did they rise higher on 

 the hill-sides than they do now ? I think not. They could 

 not have grown for the swamps, let alone the exposure. 

 Here and there an ancient oak may be disclosed in an upland 

 peat-pit ; which may be in situ, having grown by itself be- 

 fore being surrounded by bog. I once found a large birch in 

 peat, on the high moors, where no trees flourish now ; but 

 we still see solitary trees of this kind in situations which do 

 not argue former sociality. The highest situated trees at 

 present on the Goldscleugh side, are the ancient birch wood; 

 but it never rose higher than the platform immediately above 

 it, where branches and stumps of small diameter are still 

 dug out of a peat moss. There are decayed roots of trees 

 entering the clay beneath the peat, far up the base of Hedge- 

 hope, and in drains on Cheviot ; but there are single trees or 

 clumps there still. Because Cheviot was once called <( a 

 Forest," we must not jump to the conclusion that it was 

 overgrown with trees. In some parts of Great Britain there 



