292 Report of Meetings for 1891. By Dr J. Hardy. 



the guests are still welcomed by the invitation above the entrance 

 — " Fax sit huic domo inlrantibus " : Peace to all that enter here. 

 While the horses were baited here, the visitors re-ascended the 

 steep winding road to meet the party, who, although it was now 

 one o'clock, had not yet fully arrived. 



On the south side of the Fell, on the west side of the road, 

 among a clump of Brackens, a family of Whinchats, old and 

 young, still fluttered about in their breeding covers, and a single 

 Grouse rose from a heathery hollow on the- east. Greywacke 

 cropped out in the small wayside quarries for road metal. 

 Nearer Whitelee on the east side, patches from culture of thinly 

 planted hained grass grew on a slope, mingled with clover, much 

 intermingled with docks, the product of home-made manure 

 applied to raise the crop, which was very poor. Yellow Eattle 

 was the prevalent weed amongst it, as is usual on the poor hill 

 soils. Harebells and Lotus corniculatus varied the meagre Flora. 

 Plantago maritima grew in the interstices between the road metal 

 on the highest part of the almost deserted turnpike ; Carex 

 ovalis in the neighbouring moist pastures. 



After a short stay to enjoy the extensive and far-stretching 

 view of the Scottish Border, the route for Southdean was taken 

 to carry out the second part of the programme, which was to visit 

 the scene of the boyhood of Thomson, the author of *' The 

 Seasons." The rocks on the Carter are Greywacke or Silurian 

 as the basis, overlaid by Tuedian (sandstones, limestones, and 

 coal seams) with a cap of Trap. In the shales near Whitelee, 

 fossil scorpions were discovered by the Ordnance geological sur- 

 veyors. The summit of the Fell, the hillsides, and the adjacent 

 lower moors were mostly clothed with rough hill-grasses, Scirpi, 

 Eriophora, Carexes, and Rushes, with stretches of heather that 

 afford shooting ground. The general aspect differs little from 

 the Liddesdale moors. The sheep were Cheviots. This district 

 is all sheep-drained, even to the hill-tops. The more prominent 

 objects in front were the steep green back of the Carter; the 

 Carlin Tooth, also green soft ground ; the Scrathy Holes, a col- 

 lection in a nook of clay scaurs, carved out by melting winter 

 snows ; Needslaw, witli a broken mural coronet ; and the gap of 

 the Note o' the Gate, here sunk into a mere notch, and then 

 rising to a continuous dark sharp ridge (the Wigg.) 



The Eev. Dr Mair of Southdean had most kindly agreed to 



