ON THE CARTLANE CRAIG. 



497 



been broken off from the opposite, as well as the 

 sandstone. If so, the conclusion I have drawn, is 

 unavoidable. 



V. To complete the evidence of this explana- 

 tion, all the circumstances which strike the eye, 

 in surveying the neighbourhood of the Cartlane 

 Craig, and especially the great declivity towards 

 the Clyde, which runs at a level of several hun- 

 dred feet below, decidedly favour the opinion, that 

 the separation of the rocky mass has been occa- 

 sioned by its sinking on that side, where it had 

 been left without support. From the lowest ex- 

 tremity of the great opening, to the bed of the 

 Clyde, at the nearest point, there is a rapid descent 

 of half a mile ; and the course which the stream 

 of the Mouse must have followed along the base 

 of the dislocated mass on the outside, had no dis- 

 location taken place, is too obvious to escape no- 

 tice at first sight. This apparently original course, 

 though unobstructed by the fundamental rock, is 

 indeed entirely blocked up by a ridge of con- 

 siderable height, on which the house of Baronald 

 stands. It is plain, however, that this ridge has 

 been formed only by the debris from the dis- 

 located rock filling up the hollow behind it, and 

 accumulating in the progress of time ; so that the 

 water of the Mouse, after having probably been 

 collected to some depths in a large bason, still ex- 



