TRANSITION ROCKS. 115 



I am inclined to consider, that it occupies a large propor- 

 tion of Forfarshire ; and if I be correct in an observation made 

 on the banks of Loch Katrine several years ago, the transition 

 rocks extend in that direction. I have likewise found traces 

 of them on the right bank of the* Clyde, near Dalnotter Hill in 

 Dunbartonshire. But the transition country we are best ac- 

 quainted with is that of the south of Scotland, which stretches 

 entirely across the island. 



On the one side, it begins near the boundary between East 

 Lothian and Berwickshire, and continues along the coast, to a 

 little beyond the river Tweed. Extending a line from the first, 

 to a point on the west coast, between Girvan and Ballantrae; 

 and from the second, another which shall pass, by Langholm, to 

 a point between Annan and Carlisle, we shall find nearly the 

 whole of the intermediate space to be Transition, excepting 

 where granite comes in, and some partial deposites of later 

 strata, which occupy the lower parts of the valleys of Nith, 

 Annan, &c. 



The mountainous district of Cumberland, Westmoreland, 

 and the north of Lancashire, which is divided from the Transi- 

 tion of the south of Scotland only by a small proportion of pa- 

 rallel strata *, belongs to the same, at least we know of 

 none other with which it can be classed, although it contains a 

 variety of rocks, which cannot be referred to any in the series 

 of Werner. 



Adjoining to this, in the western part of Yorkshire, the 

 same rocks occur : it is on these that the limestone of Ingle- 

 borough and Whernside rests. To this succeeds the extensive 



P 2 district 



* This term has been applied to distinguish the sandstone strata, and in that 

 sense I now use it ; it is objectionable, however ; for all stratified rocks present 

 the phenomena of parallelism, consequently, without qualification, this term af- 

 fords no distinction. 



