We must refrain from entering upon the details of the extensive geological fields which have just been glanced at. A volume would not suffice to exhaust the subject. But, rapid as our sketch has necessarily been, enough has been advanced to show how intimately connected with the great fundamental principles of the science, and with the original configuration of our planet more especially, are all the deeply-interesting phenomena of the region in question. If at times the reader, as well as explorer, is apt to complain of the dryness of particulars, that the nomenclature is harsh and scholastic, how delightful to close, even in imagination, the day’s excursion amid these lovely valleys, to be steeped in fairy lore by St. Mary’s Loch, to dream of legends and minstrelsy until morning dawn by Newark’s Tower. Nith, Gala, Ettrick, Yarrow, Teviot, silvery Tweed!—who, indeed, will ever associate with the minerals, sections, and technicalities of geology. Still how refreshing to lie down, traveled and weary-worn, by their green pastures and pure waters. How beautifully do these rivers, all of them with an origin so remote, hold on in their pebbly courses—winding and gathering from so many rills amidst the pastoral uplands—“making sweet music with th’ enameled stones”—and anon with all their affluents sweeping in placid majesty to the main. Hither will men of all professions and pursuits,—the sportsman, poet, philosopher,—eagerly and rejoicingly resort, each with his own object or his own care. Finely, in imperishable verse, has the truth been expressed of that many-colored tide of human life on which all are embarked— “Which, though it change in ceaseless flow, Retains each grief, retains each crime”— —but NOW these streams, dales, and hills retain no impress of strife or blood; and hence will the wish, age after age, breathe from many a heart— “By Yarrow’s stream still let me stray, Though none should guide my feeble way: Still feel the breeze down Ettrick break, Although it chill my withered cheek; Still lay my head by Teviot stone, Though there forgotten and alone.” And so human life will glide away, a new epoch will come, and the development of man’s immortal being will be accomplished in the new and brighter earth that is to arise.