312 MR MILNE ON THE MID-LOTHIAN AND EAST-LOTHIAN COAL-FIELDS. 



same degree of precision. It has been gone through, however, in making borings 

 and sinking shafts for coal, in various parts of the Esk valley, — as at New Craig 

 Hall, Shaw-fair, Caknie, Niddry, Monkton, Craighall, Millerhill, Sheriffhall, Cow- 

 pits, Dalkeith, Eldin, Newbattle, and Bryants. It may be well seen in the chan- 

 nel of the burn which flows past Straiton Mill. There are numerous boulders of 

 encrinal limestone in the clay there, the scratches on which are NW. by compass. 



At the village of Ford, in a burn which there joins the Tyne from the north, 

 a bed of clay about thirty feet thick full of boulders may be seen, and possessing 

 in all other respects the same characters which this deposit has elsewhere. It is, 

 however, deserving of observation, that though this boulder-clay exists on the 

 north and south, and I believe I may add the east flanks of the Roman Camp,* 

 it does not seem to occur above a certain level on these flanks. In none of the 

 Cowden or Chalkieside quarries, for example, does this boulder-clay exist, cover- 

 ing the outcroppings of the strata that are there bored. These are between 350 

 and 450 feet above the sea. It has been proved, in the various borings recently 

 made by the Duke of Buccleuch on the same side of the hill, and which are 

 about 140 feet above the sea. The boulder-clay is wanting also at FuUarton 

 and Monk-Loudon (situated about eight miles SW. of Dalkeith), which are ele- 

 vated about 850 feet above the sea. I might mention various other spots where 

 the deposit does not exist, and where the rocks are covered in general only by a 

 deposit of small gravel, to be afterwards noticed. These cases can, in my opinion, 

 be explained only on the supposition of the boulder-clay having been abraded 

 and washed away by currents of water flowing over it, after its deposition. 



The part of the district where I have seen the boulder-clay highest above 

 the sea, is between Carlops and West Linton. It covers the rocks in that district 

 for many miles, and forms a deposit which is on an average about 960 feet above 

 the sea. I have noticed in it there, boulders of Basalt, Coal-Sandstone, Limestone, 

 Greywacke, and Felspar- Porphyry. There is, near Rutherfurd House, a block of 

 Limestone, about a ton in weight, and not much worn at the edges. No Lime- 

 stone of the same description occurs nearer than four miles : and there are only 

 two places where it is known to exist ; the one at Baddensgill, situated about 

 N.NW. from Rutherfurd House ; and the other near Fairneyhaugh, situated 

 W. by N. from it. The blocks of coal-sandstone have most probably been trans- 

 ported from Cairnsmuu% a hill among the Pentlands, situated to the W.NW. In 

 speaking of Carlops, I should notice the existence of a valley near it, to the west, 

 which extends for about 1^ miles, and runs in an E. and W. direction. In the 

 middle of this valley are several pyramidal masses of rock, so isolated and bared 

 to the west, as to suggest strongly the notion, that the vaUey has been scooped out 

 by a rush of water from that direction. 



In the burn which flows between Fala and Woodcot, this bouider-clay can 



* It was cut through in improving the Edinburgh road, about two years ago, at Kippilaw, on the 

 north side of the Roman Camp, and near Fordell, on the SE. side of the hill. 



