Ascend the Eildons, or, as the route may be, Carterfell, Hartfell, or Criffel, and witness the changes, as the different systems of rocks were drifted into their places, and rose above that expanse of waters. Criffel, the loftiest mountain on the west, is composed of granite, and formed a solitary islet there, or one of a series of islands, of the primary crystalline formation. The silurian chains, in their respective positions, are next elevated to the surface. The old red sandstones collect and form along their bases, spreading over vast areas all around. These are lifted into day by the Eildons, and the numerous hills of claystone porphyry, which give such diversity of character through Liddesdale, Lauderdale, Cheviotdale, and the whole border landscape. Carterfell, which consists of a dark greenstone trap, resting on a white or light reddish sandstone, marks the upheaval of the carboniferous strata, and probable retirement of the sea from these districts, where we find no traces of any of the secondary or newer systems of rocks. Thus the line of the Scottish Border, from Annan to Roxburghshire, consists of the _under series_ of the coal formation passing down the Tweed, by Kelso, Sprouston, Coldstream, to Berwick. The old red sandstone is largely developed by Chester, Hawick, Melrose, Greenlaw, Dunse; and again, after an interruption of trap and the coal-measures, it resumes its course by Chirnside, Foulden, and Mornington, to the sea. Scales of the Holoptychius and Dendrodus are found in the strata at Prestonhaugh, near Jedburgh, and likewise at the Knock Hill, in Berwickshire. On the higher grounds, from the Eildons to Hartfell and Peebles, the graywacke and slate beds everywhere prevail, presenting at St. Abb’s Head, Selkirk, and Ettrick Bridge, interesting specimens of crumpled and bent strata. Remarkable veins of trap and calc-spar are to be observed near St. Mary’s Loch; silver and other metallic ores are said to have been found in the neighboring hills: near Moffat, gypsum, pyritous graywacke, and alum slate, are very abundant—formations probably connected with the mineral waters of Moffat Well and Hartfell spa. At Glendinning, in the parish of Westerkirk, an antimony mine has been long wrought, which is about twenty inches wide, and once rich in the valuable mineral. A vein of galena or lead, lined with heavy-spar, crosses the Esk at Broomholm, below Langholm, and here the usual series of shales, limestone, sandstone, and thin bands of coal, are developed for miles, resting on the graywacke of Hermitage, Ernton, and Witterhope Burn hills.