SELKIRKSHIRE. 



itreams called burns. Thefe, flowing in a deep bed, form 

 glens or hollows, provincially called hopes, which afford 

 flielter during the night, and in llormy weather, to the (heep 

 in this paftoral diltrift, and produce richer grais than the 

 expofed fides of the hills. When the country was covered 

 with wood, thefe glens mud have afforded much beautiful 

 fcenery. In the louth-well diftrift of the county are a 

 number of fmall lakes, not however worthy of defcrip- 

 tion. The two already mentioned, viz. the Loch of the 

 X,ows, and St. Mary's Loch, lie contiguous, being feparated 

 only by a narrow neck of land. The firfl is very fmall, 

 but th<; latter extends fix miles in circumference, and one 

 mile in breadth. Both of them are furrounded by high av.d 

 fleep hills, and abound with pike and pearch. 



Soil. — The foil of the (heep-walks, with fome exceptions, 

 is found and dry, generally from its lying on a bottom of 

 gravel, granite, or wkinflone ; and even a good deal of it 

 either inclining towards clay, or incumbent on clay or tilth, 

 is prevented from retaining a hurtful quantity of water, by 

 its fteepnefs, and the firm confidence of its fiirface. There 

 is very little pure clay in the whole country ; and moll of 

 the land where a mixture of it appears, or where it forms 

 part of the fubflratum, lies on the fides Of the hills, nearly 

 at an equal dillance from their fummits and the vallies below. 

 There are fomt, though very few, marfhy fpots near the 

 fides of rivers, and on the tops of high mountains. There 

 is, indeed, an extenfive flat, in an elevated fituation, be- 

 tween the waters of Ettrick and Borthwick, of a foft and 

 fpongy nature, and full of moraffes, but this may be confi- 

 dered as the only exception to the general afiertion that de- 

 ferves to be noticed. Heath grows vigoroufly on dry foil, 

 but becomes rare and ftunted, according to the wetnefs of 

 the land, and in very wet land difappears altogether. De- 

 tached portions of it are found in every corner. It is only 

 on the higher grounds, towards the fources of the waters, 

 that the mofly foil prevails ; lometimes appearing in its na- 

 tive dark and ftcrile hue, but more frequently prefenting a 

 thin fward of beautiful and tender grafs, through which the 

 feet of cattle fink more or lefs, according to the depth of 

 the mofly lubdance, and the quantity of rain it has imbibed. 

 It is ia fuch places, chiefly, that the plant abounds which 

 is called mo/s, of whole leaves and root fheep are extremely 

 fond early in fpring, when other food is fcarce. The 

 foil of the fmall part in tillage is light, dry, and eafily ma- 

 naged. Even the few places which lie on tilth have fo much 

 declivity, that a little care in laying out and ploughing the 

 ridges, carries off both the fprings and the furface-water. 

 Very little of it is fufficiently deep and ftrong for producing 

 wheat. But nearly the whole of it is admirably adapted for 

 turnips, clover, barley, and oats : peas, too, fucceed very 

 well : the white grains, though not large, have thin huflcs, 

 are plump, and of an admirable quality. Turnips feldom 

 fail, and clover is frequently raifed in very weighty crops. 

 Thefe fafts give the belt idea of a Iharp, warm, and kindly 

 foil, which is rath.er, on the whole, however, deficient in 

 depth. White clover appears, in every field that is furren- 

 dered to pafluie, without having been fown, and indeed is 

 found in all parts of the county where the foil is dry. 



C/imule. — IiL the lower part of the countythere is not fo 

 much humidity as might be expefted, from its elevation, 

 and the numero\is mountains with which it is furrounded. 

 Lefs rain falls at Selkirk than at Wool, about five miles 

 nearly due fontli of it ; and only about half an inch more 

 than at Hawkfhill, nearLcith. According to the Statifti- 

 cal Account of Scotland, (vol. ii. p. 438.) tlie mean quan- 

 tity of rain which fell yearly in Wool parifh was found to 

 be 3ii inches ; the medium height of the barometer 29 ,V ; 



the medium of heat 43 degrees. Branxholm or Wool may 

 be taken as a pretty jufl ftandard of the chmate, about fix or 

 eight miles above Selkirk, on the waters of the Ettrick and 

 Yarrow. There are few places, even in the higheft part of 

 the country, fo very moilt as Langholm ; though, in pro- 

 portion as it rifes, there is a greater quantity of rain ; the 

 air becomes colder and more penetrating ; frofts are more 

 early and fevcrely felt, and fnow hes deeper and longer. 

 The rays of the fun, refledted by the furrounding moun- 

 tains on fome vallies 600 feet above the ocean, excite a de- 

 gree of heat that brings the crop very quickly to maturity. 

 The number of fprings that are obftrufted in their courfe, 

 forms marfhes more or lefs deep and extenfive. There are 

 many moraffes, fome of them of an unknown depth ; a 

 good deal of moffy land ; and feveral lakes. The moifture 

 exhaled from the vail quantity of water cclleftcd in thefe, 

 greatly increafes the dampuefs of the atmofphere, and pro- 

 duces frequent mi its and (howers. Nor can this inconve- 

 nience be effeftually obviated by the numerous drains 

 which are daily making, though thefe mutt doubtlefs contri- 

 bute to meliorate the climate. The general courfe of the 

 weather and feafons is much the fame as in Roxburghfliire. 

 See Roxburghshire. 



Mineralogy. — -There are no metals, coal, lime, or free- 

 ftone, in any part of this county. But there is abundance 

 of whinitone and granite. MofTes, formed of decayed wood 

 and other vegetables, are made into peat for fuel. Some of 

 them are of confiderable extent and depth ; and thofe to- 

 wards the fouth-eaft, in the parifhes of Selkirk, Robertfon, 

 and a corner of Yarrow and Afhkirk, cover large beds of 

 excellent (hell-marle. In the rills by which fome of them 

 are fed, many fmall ftones are found ; fome of them over- 

 fpread with a glutinous fubflance, others incrufted with 

 matter very fimilar to that of which the (hells are com- 

 pofed ; others again with fhells in every progreflive ftate of 

 formation ; and a few with the animals alive, in fhells com- 

 pletely formed, but of different degrees of confiftence and 

 hardnefs. 



To account for this incruftation of ftones with calcareous 

 earth, in a county where no lime is known to exilt, and to 

 determine whether it comes from fome rock as yet unex- 

 plored, from loofe fragments or particles fcattered among 

 other fubflances, and waflied away by ftreams, or from pul- 

 verized fhells, or from any other matter found in the neigh- 

 bourhood, would require a fcicntific and accurate exami- 

 nation of the furrounding mountains, and the different ftrata 

 of which they are formed. On the fuppofition of the 

 incruftation proceeding from a rock, or detached pieces of 

 lime, it may become a queftion how far this fubftance is nc- 

 ceflary or ufeful to the animals in rearing their (hells, and on 

 the other fuppofition, of its being occafioned by pulverized 

 (hells, it is of equal importance to afcertain the materials 

 from which thefe (liells arc conltruiSed. 



/Igriculture. — The agriculture of fuch a county as this, 

 cannot be a very interefling fubjeft. In the lower parts of 

 the county, the bell pradlices in agriculture arc fucccfifully 

 piirfued, as in Roxburghfliire and Berwickfhire ; but in the 

 upper part of the county, or foreft, as it is called, where the 

 arable land is not fenced ofl', and the difadvantages of an un- 

 favourable foil and climate occur, little can be done. In this 

 fituation, the fmall portion of arable land on the (l<irts of the 

 hills is chiefly cropped with oats, which are the grain bell 

 adapted to the nature of the chmate, and the wants of its 

 inhabitants, both as a part of their food, and for the lup- 

 port of their horfes. In thefe fituationa, the principal im- 

 provement that can be adopted, confills in rendering the 

 arable land fubfervicnt to the lupport of (heep, vrhich form 

 D d 2 the 



