1849.] 



NICOL ON THE SOUTH-EAST OF SCOTLAND. 



59 



In his Note on the most ancient systems of mountains in Europe *, 

 M. Elie de Beaumont includes the southern mountains of Scotland 

 in his Westmoreland and Hundsriick system, though with some hesi- 

 tation from uncertainty as to the age of the strata and their mean 

 direction. The former difficulty may now be regarded as removed 

 by the fossils collected by Mr. Moore and myself in such distant parts 

 of the chain, and it thus seems worth while to inquire how far the 

 general direction of the beds coincides with that which he assigns to 

 this system. Among a large number of observations in Peebles-shire 

 and the neighbouring counties, only sixty-six were sufficiently precise 

 to be used for this purpose. With two exceptions, probably acci- 

 dental, the whole of these fall in an arc of 65°, or little more than 

 one-third the circle. Thirty-five or more than a half dip to the north, 

 thirteen or one-fifth are'vertical, and the remainder, eighteen in number, 

 dip south, as shown in fig. 1, in which the Roman numerals mark the 

 number of beds, when more than one, corresponding to each line. The 

 mean of the whole is E. 35° 10' N., or about 9° north of the mag- 

 netic east. According to M. E. de Beaumont's calculation, the di- 

 rection of the system, to which he refers this chain, is in this place 



Fig. 1. — Direction of Silurian Strata in the South-East of Scotland. 



* Bulletin de la Soc. Geol. de France, torn. iv. p. 917. 



