REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1903 19 



place, though no ramparts or ditches are traceable ; others 

 supporting the theory that it is the result of the action of 

 water, forcing its way outward and causing a landslip, which 

 has in time been clothed with the natural grasses of the 

 adjacent hills. Occurring as it does at the junction of the 

 Upper Red Sandstone and the Silurian formations — the 

 point at which such an outlet of water might naturally be 

 looked for — it seems as if the latter were the more probable 

 explanation, confirmation of which may be found in the 

 existence of a stream derived from the neighbourhood, though 

 now enclosed in pipes, which supplies the farm of Dingleton 

 Mains, in the near vicinity. 



Ascending to the ridge connecting the North-eastern and 

 Middle Peaks, and halting on the plateau on 

 Eildon the Southern slope, the members enjoyed the 



Hills. extensive view of which Sir Walter Scott 



affirmed: — "I can stand on the Eildon Hill, 

 and point out forty-three places, famous in war and verse," 

 all of which must have been discernible on such a day of 

 brilliant sunshine and superbly clear atmosphere. Here Mr 

 Goodchild gave a short and interesting account (which forms 

 a paper in the Transactions of this year) of the structure 

 and leading geological features of the hill, tracing, by means 

 of diagrams, the highly convoluted nature of the Silurian 

 base, on which is deposited the Old Eed Sandstone, and 

 through which has intruded an irregular sheet of Trachyte 

 or Porphyritic rock, capable of resisting climatic and chemical 

 action, which, on account of its close and fine-grained character, 

 has helped to "water-proof" and preserve these less durable 

 layers. The striking configuration of the Eildons was due, he 

 explained, to the capping of this harder rock upon the softer 

 sandstone, and to the long-continued action of an ice-sheet, 

 2000 feet in thickness, and weighing 25 tons to the square 

 foot, moving in a North-easterly direction, and wearing the 

 clefts which give to the hill its remarkably picturesque 

 appearance. Specimens of this eruptive rock abound upon 

 the hillside, and were shown to possess the rough or harsh 

 feeling (occasioned by the abundance of minute vapour or 

 gas pores) which supplies it with its distinctive nomen- 

 clature. 



