Notes on the Ettrich. By James Hardy. 595 



levelled down — all ranging in height between your eye and the 

 town. By applying the level you can detect no deviation. By 

 turning the tube to the opposite side of the valley, you discover 

 other legible markings, and so on, till you arrive at the village 

 of Ettrick-bridge. 



But the chief object of my visit was to examine the " Linns 

 of Ettrick,'' a singular ridge of rock extending across the valley 

 immediately above the village. The farmhouse of Newhall is 

 about a quarter of a mile west from the bridge, and stands near 

 the summit of that ridge, overlooking the narrow rugged chasm, 

 whose dark abyss is more than one hundred feet in depth, where 

 the river finds a turbulent passage through amidst a series of 

 abrupt ledges of opposing rock. Taking the height of the 

 ridge, I find it to be one hundred and eighteen feet above the 

 village. That vast rocky barrier must have dammed back the 

 river for many ages, forming a lake for some miles up the 

 valley, nearly as far as Deloraine. 



It is interesting to observe that the river had not always 

 flowed over by the present breach. There is a hollow way 

 trending round the north end of that height, some few feet 

 below the summit, where the water had run for a period of time. 

 That old channel makes a detour of about two miles ; it may be 

 observed below the old tower of Kirkhope, continuing down to 

 the north side of the village. It does not appear to be difiicult 

 to account for the change of the river's course. The old channel 

 seems not to have been capacious enough to pass all the water 

 in the time of great floods ; consequently, the lake would rise 

 till it overflowed the next lower part of the barrier ; of course 

 that part is seen to be its present outlet. The ridge is there 

 comparatively narrow, every successive flood having assisted in 

 enlarging the guUey till it became large enough to contain the 

 whole stream. 



That ledge of rock is very hard, and the mass removed so 

 enormous, that we are lost in conjecture as to the ages that have 

 elapsed in the wearing out of the rugged chasm. To the sight- 

 seeker, or the student of nature, this is one of the most interest- 

 ing scenes in the south of Scotland. There the wearing power 

 of water is exemplified in a most extraordinary manner. The 

 portion of the rock, as exhibited there, is highly interesting to 

 a geologist, although it may have little or no interest to people 

 in general, 



