278 C. LAPW0RTH ON THE MOFFAT SEMES. 



Lower Hartfell Shales. To the south the ground is covered with 

 vegetation, and none of the Moffat shales are visible. 



Cowans Croft, Sfc. — Following the band to the south-west above 

 the head of the valley, we observe that its great lateral extension 

 gives rise to a wide peat-covered flat, like that of the Yellow Mire. 

 It is crossed near its eastern extremity by the " Captain's Road," 

 an almost obliterated mountain-track between Crosscleuch and the 

 valley of the Ettrick. In this track, and the little quarries and 

 scaurs in its neighbourhood, fragments and even bedded patches 

 of the Hartfell and Birkhill shales are discernible on both sides of 

 the central portion of the band. 



Additional evidence of the presence of the Birkhill Shales may be 

 gathered at intervals along the sloping hollow followed by the band 

 to the south of the summit of Ramsey Knowe. In this direction 

 the band rapidly contracts its diameter to one fourth of that which 

 it possessed at the head of Berrybush. 



Scabcleuch (Plate XIII. Plan D). — Crossing the watershed into 

 the hollow drained by the stream of Scabcleuch, a small tributary 

 of the latter descends the western side of Ramsey Knowe exactly in 

 the line of the black-shale band. This has worn a little gorge, 

 known as " The Slunk," out of the mossy slope, and has laid bare an 

 admirable exposure of the junction of the beds of the black band and 



Fig. 14. — Section across the Slunk, Scabcleuch Burn. 



I). Greywackes much contorted, seen at 



stream foot. 

 Cb. Grey shales with black and white bands, 



contorted, non-fossiliferous. 

 Ca. Well-bedded black flags and shales with 



partings of variegated mudstones. 



Monograptus gregarius, D. vesiculo- 



sus, &c. 

 Bb. Pale mudstone with seam of black shale. 

 Ba. Shattered black slaty shales with Pleu- 



rograptus. 

 f. Fault. 



the greywackes to the south (fig. 14). Hitherto, beyond the detection 

 of a few fragments of the higher Moffat Shales near the southern 

 margin of the band, we have obtained no positive proof of the 

 presence of the Hartfell and Birkhill shales to the south of its longitu- 

 dinal axis. In this exposure that proof is complete and decisive. The 

 deepest beds seen to the north, towards the centre of the band, form 

 a portion of the Pleurograptus zone of the Lower Hartfell Shales, 

 yielding Leptograptus flaccidus (Hall), &c. They are in irregular 

 contact with a broken mass of the "Barren Mudstone," beyond 

 which certain black, yellow, and grey bands, that represent the 

 D.-anceps zone, plunge visibly beneath the shivery mudstone with 

 JDiplograptus acuminatus, which forms the base of the Birkhill 

 Shales. Upon this reposes 9 feet of hard thick flags (clearly the 

 D.-vesiculosus zone), yielding the characteristic fossils Diplograptus 

 vesiculosus (Nich.), Monograptus tenuis (Portl.), &c. This subsides 

 below a thick mass of thinner flags, with bands of variegated mud- 



