The low-lying tracts of Roxburghshire and the Merse, in like manner,
present features which are common to the inner region of the Central
Lowlands. Occasional ridges of hills rise above the general level of
the land, as at Smailholm and Stitchell to the north of Kelso, while
isolated knolls and prominences--some bald and abrupt, others smooth
and rounded--help to diversify the surface. Bonchester Hill, Rubers
Law, the Dunian, Penielheugh, Minto Hills, and the Eildons may be
mentioned as examples. All of these are of igneous origin, some being
mere caps of basalt resting upon a foundation of sandstone, while
others are the stumps of isolated volcanoes.
In the maritime tracts of Galloway the low grounds repeat, on a smaller
scale, the configuration of the lofty Uplands behind, for they are
composed of the same kinds of rock. Their most remarkable feature is
the heavy mountain-mass of Criffel, rising near the mouth of the Nith
to a height of 1800 feet.
Everywhere, therefore, throughout the region of the Southern Uplands,
in hilly and low-lying tracts alike, we see that the land has been
modelled and contoured by the agents of erosion. We are dealing, as
in the Highlands, with an old table-land, in which valleys have been
excavated by running water and its helpmates. Nowhere do we encounter
any linear banks, ridges, or ranges as we find described in the
class-books, and represented upon many general maps of the country.
In one of those manuals we read that in the southern district "the
principal range of mountains is that known as the Lowther Hills, which
springs off from the Cheviots, and, running in a zigzag direction to
the south-west, terminates on the west coast near Loch Ryan." This
is quite true, according to many common maps, but unfortunately the
"range" exists upon those maps and nowhere else. The zigzag line
described is not a range of mountains, but a water-parting, which is
quite another matter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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