208 



Mr. Bowman on the Natural Terraces 



from a distant point, nor when standing upon or near them, 

 do they anywhere exhibit to the eye the continuity, the pa- 

 rallelism, or the perfect horizontality, either of level or of sur- 

 face, so strikingly displayed in those of Glen Roy. Indeed, 

 they are for the most part so broken and interrupted, and 

 the detached portions often so obviously deflected from the 

 horizontal plane, notwithstanding a general parallelism, that it 

 is difficult to conceive them to have been formed by water. I 

 think that most geologists would pass through the district, 

 and even walk over them, without being aware of anything 

 peculiar, unless their attention were specially directed towards 

 them. This obscurity naturally led me to a more close ex- 

 amination of the limited portions I had the opportunity of 

 visiting; and as some of the appearances did not strike me 

 as being the result of tidal action, I have thought that in the 

 present state of our knowledge of them, the cause of truth 

 might be advanced by directing the attention of geologists 

 towards those points which seem to be still obscure, notwith- 

 standing the conclusion at which we must arrive from the 

 general coincidence of the levels across intervening valleys. 



I first ascended the northern flank of the Eildon hills from 

 the valley of the Tweed at Melrose, passing from the old red 

 sandstone, which forms the general surface of the district, to 

 the greywacke, and from it again to the red compact felspar, 

 which has burst through both, and forms the greater portion 



writings of Sir W. Scott, are surpassed by none, to ask if he could point 

 out any passage showing that he was aware of the existence of these 

 terraces. I quote a portion of his reply : — " I believe 1 can answer you 

 with positive certainty, and, as you say, ' at once,' (for my memory, as 

 honest Parson Evans says, was always pretty 1 sprag,') that though he very 

 frequently, up and down, makes particular and fond mention of the Eildon 

 hills, and places about Melrose, I am very sure he never notices any par- 

 ticular geological formation in those mountains, or surely it would have 

 struck me, especially when similar to the Parallel Roads of Glen Roy, 

 which I viewed with such intense interest in your society. In the ' Monas- 

 tery ' he gives a very minute and beautiful description, at some length, of 

 a narrow valley above Melrose, there called Kennaquhair, down which a 

 small river falls into the Tweed; but not one word of stone-ology, or any 

 part of natural history, in which poets in general are miserably ignorant. 

 From this censure, I must, however, except our matchless Shakspere, and 

 old father Chaucer," &c. &c. 



Had Sir W. Scott been aware of these terraces, he would surely have 

 interwoven some notice of them with the story of Mary Avenel. How much 

 to be regretted that his fine spirit should have passed away in ignorance of 

 the most interesting natural feature of a district he has so well immortalized ! 

 But " non omnes omnia possumus ; " and to use his own nervous language 

 in another place, "they have a' their different turns, and some can . clink 

 verses, — a nd some rin up hill and down dale, knapping the chucky stanes 

 to pieces wi' hammers, like sae mony roadmakers run daft, — they say it is 

 to see how the warld was made!" 



