REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1902 255 



with these lies in the fact that they agree in every respect 

 with the radiolarian oozes of the deeper parts of the oceanic 

 basins of to-day ; and, doubtless, as most reasonable persons 

 think, they were formed under the same conditions, and at 

 similar depths. There is a little unwillingness on the part 

 of a few people — mostly more or less backward as regards 

 their education — to admit that any part of a continental area 

 can ever have formed the floor of a deep ocean. Such, however, 

 was the position of what is now Peebles during part of the 

 older Ordovician times. It has undergone many ups and 

 downs since then, but few of the subsequent events in its 

 history are so fraught with interest to the student of ancient 

 physical geography as the fact that an ancient deep sea deposit 

 underlies much of the south of Scotland. 



Other events followed the deep sea episode ; but they do 

 not much concern us in this connection. 



The next event of importance that the study of the rocks 

 has brought to light is the evidence of an extensive upheaval 

 of the ocean floor, and a temporary conversion of some parts 

 of it into land. The earlier formed rocks, including the lavas 

 and the radiolarian cliert, had been compacted into hard rock, 

 upheaved, long exposed to the action of the waves, extensively 

 worn thereby, and the pebbles resulting from the wear and 

 tear were spread out so as to form another kind of rock, made 

 of samples, so to speak, of all the different kinds of rock 

 that occurred within the area affected by the upheaval. It 

 is this very ancient beach gravel, now compacted into a hard 

 band of stone, which forms the well-known "Haggis Rock" 

 of Peebles and Lanarkshire, which is so much in request 

 amongst geologists and other lovers of things interesting in 

 connection with the remote past. 



After the Haggis Rock was formed there ensued another 

 period of subsidence, during which many events of great 

 interest happened in the Lake District, Wales, and elsewhere ; 

 but those which occurred here are not of sufficient importance 

 to be dwelt upon at any length now. 



Another period of upheaval set in, followed, as before, by 

 a prolonged period of subsidence. There is no need to enter 

 into any great detail in regard to this. It will suffice to say 

 that in the course of a great many millions of years a vast 



