706 MR FRANCIS J. LEWIS 
amount of water present in the upper layers prevented this, as the sections became 
filled before they could be carried down farther than 38 or 4 feet. So far as the 
evidence collected goes, this peat has had a different history from the 7 or 8 miles of 
peat lying immediately to the north, as here all the beds represented in the northern 
area from the basal birch to the pine zone are wanting, and the peat appears to have 
had an uninterrupted swamp history. 
THe Upztanp Mossks oF THE TWEEDSMUIR AND St Mary’s Locu District. 
(One inch Ordnance Survey—sheet 16.)—Peat occurs abundantly in the hill district 
lying between the head-waters of the Tweed and St Mary’s Loch, both as upland peat 
covering the slopes and floor of many of the valleys, and as hill-top peat covering the 
summits of the hills up to 2500 feet, and is developed to a greater extent on the Hart- 
fell and White Coombe hills than on the Broad Law group. The average depth of the 
hill-top peat is about 6-8 feet, and the depth in the valleys about 10-14 feet. 
Work in this district was chiefly directed to the Megget Valley, and particularly to 
some of its tributary valleys. Megget Water drains the eastern slopes of the Broad 
Law group on the north, and the Talla Side and Lochcraig Head on the south, and 
some of its tributary valleys run far up into the upland and hill-top peat districts. 
The peat about to be described lies in Winterhope, the main southern valley leading into 
Megget Water. The burn flowing in this hope rises on the peat-covered ground near 
Loch Skene, and flows northward for about 5 miles before joining Megget Water. 
Evidences of glacial action are plentiful over the whole of the district, the terminal 
and lateral moraines being particularly distinct. They are to be seen in many of the 
northern tributary burns of the Megget Water, in the main valley itself, and are 
beautifully shown at the junction of Winterhope Burn with Garley Burn. (Fig. 4.) The 
moraines are found at altitudes of from 900 feet-1500 feet, and are contemporaneous 
with the third period of glaciation or the district ice-sheets and valley glaciers of the 
Southern Uplands. 
In some places the moraines rise out of the peat-covered districts, as at the head of 
Loch Skene (fig. 5), and in other places the moraines are themselves covered thickly 
with peat (fig. 9). The peat then in such positions is clearly younger than the 
moraines upon which it rests, and cannot be older than the peat described in similar 
positions in the Merrick-Kells district, and it contains evidence by which it can be 
directly compared with the peat layers in that district. 
The sections were made at the junction of Winterhope Burn and Garley Burn, where 
a thick covering of peat is developed in the hollows between the moraines. At the 
present time it shows the usual “ peat-hag” formation of high mounds and ridges of 
peat with deep channels between, the summits of the mounds being covered with 
a vegetation consisting of Calluna vulgaris, Salisb.; Erica Tetrahx, L.; Scirpus 
cespitosus, L. Farther up Garley Burn and beyond the area covered by peat, clay beds 
