The first section to which reference may be made is exposed in the
course of the River Jed, at Allars Mill, a little above Jedburgh.
This section is famous in its way as having been described and
figured by Dr. Hutton, who may be said to have founded the present
system of physical geology. In the bed of the stream are seen certain
confused ridges of a greyish blue rock running right across the river
course--that is, in a direction a little north of east and south
of west. These ridges are the exposed edges of beds of greywacké
and shale, which are here standing on end. The beds are somewhat
irregular, being inclined from the vertical, now in one direction
and now in another, or, as a geologist would say, the "dip" changes
rapidly, sometimes being up the valley and sometimes down. The same
beds continue up the steep bank of the river for a yard or two, and
are there capped by another set of rocks altogether, namely, by soft
red sandy beds which at the bottom become _conglomeratic_--that is
to say, they are charged with water-worn stones. The annexed diagram
(Fig. 1) will show the general appearances presented: _g_ represents
the vertical greywacké and shale, and _c_ the overlying deposits of
conglomerate and red sandy beds. Now let us see what this section
means. What, in the first place, is greywacké? The term itself has
really no meaning, being a name given by the miners in the Harz
Mountains to the unproductive rocks associated with the vein-stones
which they work. When we break the rock we may observe that it is a
granular mixture of small particles of quartz, to which sometimes
felspar and other minerals are added. The grains are bound together
in a hardened matrix of argillaceous or clayey and silicious matter,
blue, or grey, or green, or brown and yellow, as the case may be.
At Allars Mill, and generally throughout the Cheviot district, the
prevailing colour is a pale greyish blue or bluish grey; but shades of
green and brown often occur. The component particles of the rock are
usually rounded or water-worn. Again, we notice that the ridges and
bands of rock that traverse the course of the Jed at Allars Mill are
merely the outcrops of successive _strata_ or beds. It is clear then
that greywacké and the grey shales that accompany it are _aqueous_
rocks--that is to say, they consist of hardened sediment, which has
undoubtedly been deposited in successive layers of variable thickness
by water in motion. But since the sediments of rivers and currents
are laid down in approximately horizontal planes, it is evident that
if the greywacké and shale be sedimentary deposits they have suffered
considerable disturbance since the time of their formation; for, as
we have seen, the beds, instead of being horizontal or only gently
inclined, actually approach the vertical. The fact is, that the
outcrops which we see are only the truncated portions of what were
formerly rapid undulations or folds of the strata, the tops of the
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