244 Anniversary Address. 



with another member of the club, to examme these shelves^ 

 at several places between Linhope and Ingram. My friend 

 and I satisfied ourselves that they were not terraces formed 

 by water, inasmuch as though some of them were hori- 

 zontal, others ran obliquely round the hills, and in several 

 instances they coincided with the slope, forming in this last 

 case wide ridges with deep trenches between. I came to the 

 conclusion, that these appearances indicated the operations of 

 husbandry, — carried on at some very remote period. It will 

 be observed, that if corn was to be grown in this district, the 

 most suitable spots would be not in the valleys, then covered 

 with woods and liable to river floods, but on the hill sides, 

 which were free from trees, and at all events more easily 

 cleared ; and where the soil, consisting in great part of decom- 

 posed porphyry, must have been peculiarly fertile. These spots 

 had also the advantage of being dry ; and it appeared to me, 

 that in order to prevent the water running away the soil, the 

 ground had been formed into broad terraces more or less 

 horizontal, a practice common at this time on the hill sides of 

 France and Germany for the culture of vines and garden 

 crops. In some of the hills, as I have stated, the ridges and 

 furrows slope down the hill. At these places we observed, 

 from the immense quantity of rushes and other aquatic plants, 

 that the ground was full of natural springs ; and if it was 

 intended to keep the soil free from water, the mode adopted 

 certainly was the best for the purpose. 



On mentioning these views to my friend the Eev. Mr. 

 Baird, minister of Yetholm — one of our original members — 

 he informed me, that at several places in his parish there are 

 similar terraces more or less horizontal, along the sides of the 

 hills. His theory in regard to their origin, however, is different 

 from the one just suggested. He states that these terraces 

 occur only where they are visible from places on the hill tops, 

 on which he believes Druidical worship to have been carried 

 on; and his opinion is that these terraces were made and 

 used for the purpose of enabling the inhabitants of the dis- 

 trict to come together and witness the ceremonies performed 



