UEPOUT OF MEETINGS POR 1906 21 



In the course of their walk to Elba, where the Whitadder 

 is spanned by a foot-bridge, the attention of members was 

 drawn to a Black-bird's nest with young in the root of a 

 Birch on the roadside, its unusual situation on the ground 

 being the subject of considerable surprise. Crossing the 



river, which at this point takes a sharp turn 

 Elba. to the South, and flows between steep banks 



of greywacke adorned with Scots Fir, Juniper, 

 and Whin, the party seated themselves on a kuoll behind 

 the game-keeper's cottage, while the Editing Secretary read 

 a short paper on the natural features of the neighbourhood. 

 The site selected is known as Elba, and forais a projecting 

 spur of Cockburn Law, a conspicuous landmark rising 1049 

 feet above sea-level, in the range of the Lammermuir. 

 Geologically it consists of Silurian greywackes considerably 

 altered by igneous action, through whose contorted folds 

 there is exposed a granite formation of the variety called 

 Pink Syenite, pre-eminent in the formation of the adjacent 

 hill of Staneshiel, and the only example in Berwickshire. 

 Elba, which has been derived from the Gaelic Eil, a hill, 

 and Both, a dwelling, lies immediately opposite the farm of 

 Ord-weel or Hoard-weel, whose former onstead, according to 

 the late Dr Hardy in his " Historical and descriptive account 

 of Bunkle and Preston," published under the auspices of the 

 Club in 1900, stood upon the top of the steep bank over- 

 hanging the Whitadder, at a place called the " Strait-Loup," 

 where the water runs through a narrow chasm into a deep 

 pool, or well, below. The name of the farm he derived from 

 the Gaelic Ard, high or steep, and the afiix tveil, a pool, 

 and the particular title of the cascade from a tradition, 

 which records how a giant of these parts was wont to make 

 free with his neighbours' cattle, and, as he crossed the 

 river at this point, bore an ox upon his shoulder with as 

 much ease as would a person of ordinary stature carry a 

 lamb. Referring to the specific character of the rocks laid 

 bare in the channel of the river, the late Mr J. G. Goodchild 

 in his Eeport of an excursion to the neighboui'hood in the 

 summer of 1903 by the Geologists' Association, remarks that 

 **a picturesque and well- wooded gorge cut by the river 

 through the highly plicated Silurian greywackes leads to 



