I come now to speak of certain rocks which, although they are developed
chiefly beyond the limits of our district, yet require a little
consideration before we can complete our account of the geological
history of the Cheviots. The rocks referred to consist chiefly of old
lava-beds, which very closely resemble those of the Lower Old Red
Sandstone. They appear on the south side of the Tweed valley below
Kelso, whence they extend south-west and west, crossing the river at
Makerstoun, and sweeping north to form the hills about Smailholm,
Stichill, and Hume (Fig. 8). All to the east of these rocks, the valley
of the Tweed is occupied by a great thickness of grey sandstones,
and grey and blue shales and clays, with which are associated thin
cement-stone bands, and occasional coarse sandy limestones called
cornstone. These strata rest upon the outskirts of the Kelso igneous
rocks, and are clearly of later date than these, since in their lower
beds, which are often conglomeratic, we find numerous rounded fragments
of the igneous rocks upon which the sandstones and shales abut. The
latter have yielded a number of fossils, both animals and plants, to
which I shall refer presently. In the bed of the Teviot near Roxburgh,
and elsewhere, the Kelso igneous rocks are found reposing upon whitish
and reddish sandstones, which are evidently the upper members of the
red beds of the Jed Water and other localities.
Strata closely resembling the grey sandstones and shales of the Tweed
valley appear among the Cheviot Hills at the head of the Jed Water,
where they are marked by the presence of thick massive sandstones,
which form all the tops of the hills between Hungry Law and the heights
that overlook the sources of the Liddel Water--the greatest height
reached being at Carter Fell, which is 1815 feet above the sea-level.
The strata at this place contain some impure limestone and thin seams
of coal, while beds of lava and tuff appear intercalated in the series.
[Illustration: Fig. 9.--Section across old volcanic neck. The dotted
line above suggests the original form of the volcano; _b_, plug of
igneous rock which rose in a molten state and cooled in the vent.]
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