MISCELLANEA. 371 



leading down in the direction of the slope of the surface from 

 the cup-like centre ; when the markings were on a perfectly flat 

 or hollowed surface such a groove or gutter was not present. I 

 am not certain whether I expressed my doubts about the artificial 

 nature of these appearances to my friend Mr. Hardy or not ; but 

 I am certain that I showed him the glaciated surface of the ad- 

 joining rock-surface, and did not believe in the artificial theory 

 of these concentric markings. 



It was not till July, 1877, that I had another, the second 

 opportunity of seeing and examining more of these circles on the 

 summit of the hill at Old Bewick, the place where they were 

 first observed by J. C. Langlands, Esq. Meantime having made 

 myself acquainted with Mr. George Tate's and Dr. Bruce' s ela- 

 borately illustrated works on this subject, I was fully prepared 

 and expected to be able to examine what the illustrations had 

 given me the hope of seeing. Instead, we found the surface of 

 the sandstone rock much weathered away, the sharp markings of 

 the grooves, as figured, gone, and some of the figures scarcely to 

 be traced at all. It was evident that exposure to the atmosphere 

 for a few years, for some of them had not been very long uncov- 

 ered, had almost obliterated the circles, and the destruction of 

 the ridges was gradually forming the whole into one large basin- 

 like hollow when the surface was flat, and levelling the lidges 

 and flattening the surface on the elopes. How, then, if these 

 appearances arc artificial, did they become preserved to the pre- 

 sent time ? "When found, most of them, if not all, were covered 

 with vegetable mould, formed in the first instance by lichens 

 growing on sandstone for a long series of years, until by the de- 

 composition of the lichens a soil was formed for the growth of 

 moss and then heather, bleaberry, etc. "Were those rocks incised 

 or sculptured before exposed to the growth of lichens ? Or werc^ 

 the incisions or sculptures, or whatever they are, covered care- 

 fully up by those who made thorn, to protect tliem from tlio 

 weather ? 



The theory whicli 1 then proposed, and still propose, is tliis — 

 that when the rock-surfaces at an early period wore bare, aiivr 

 the last glacial period, they wor(> exposed to the growth of 



