bi 
702 MR FRANCIS J. LEWIS 
good state of preservation are to be seen at the entrance to many of the small lateral 
valleys and along the foot hills of both the Merrick and Kells. These small moraines 
are contemporaneous with the numerous moraines in the Loch Skene and Tweedsmuir 
district at similar elevations, and belong to the “third” epoch of glaciation, or the 
period of local ice-sheets and valley glaciers of the Southern Uplands (4). The mosses 
occurring here are evidently younger than the moraines, as in many places they run up 
to the foot and actually rest upon these moraines. 
The peat forms an irregular border on the sides of the Gala Lane and Cooran Lane, 
varying in width from $ a mile to 1} miles. The five miles of peat south of a line 
drawn from the foot of Craignaw to Elderholm is covered at present by Sphagnum, 
The five miles of peat lying to the north of this line is better drained, and tenanted by 
a much drier type of vegetation consisting of Calluna vulgaris, L.;* Eriophorum 
vaginatum, L.; Myrica Gale, L.; Carices, and Juncus Squarrosus, L. 
Tree vegetation is entirely absent from the district, the first natural woodland on the 
east lymg 9 miles away in the Ken Valley on the other side of the Kells range, and 
westward, 15 miles away on the other side of the Merrick Hills in the Barrhill district. 
For purposes of description the peat can be divided into two districts by a line drawn 
across the valley from the foot of Craignaw to Elderholm, for the features presented by 
sections in the southern area are somewhat different from those in the northern area. 
The northern area will be described first. 
The peat is undergoing denudation at the present day, being channelled into peat- — 
hags. (Fig. 1.) The amount of denudation, however, is not so great as in other hill 
districts situated farther east both in Scotland and England. The first series of sections 
were made near the rising place of Cooran Lane, and the following plant-beds were 
exposed :— 
1. Peat formed chiefly from Scirpus and Eriophorum vaginatum, L., 7 feet. 
2. Layer of Pinus sylvestris, L.; trees with stools of large size 
and numerous cones, : ; Ber. 
3. Peat formed chiefly from Sphagnum, . : 2. 
4. Eriophorum vaginatum, L., peat, : : d 6 inches. 
5. A layer of the stems of Hmpetrum nigrum, L., sharply divided 
from the peat above and below, } : 5a Ses 
6. Eriophorum vaginatum, L., peat, : . aa 
7. Sphagnum peat, ; : ; ; Ate 
8. A layer of Betula. 
9. Structureless peat mixed in some places with much coarse granite 
sand. 
10. Coarse granite sand. Bored through for 2 feet, but further boring 
stopped by the rush of water and the difficulty of obtaining 
a core. 
* The nomenclature of HookgEr’s Student’s British Flora, third edition, is followed throughout. 
