The etymology of the term _Ochil_, would seem to be connected in some way with these geological phenomena. A tradition exists that, from time immemorial, the earthquakes of Comrie were cotemporaneous with subterranean movements or noises in the _Ochil_ range, near Devon. The Gælic word _ochain_, or _ochail_, signifies, according to Armstrong, “moaning, wailing, howling;” and hence it is inferred that the name of the “Moaning Hills” may have been given to the range, from the sounds so frequently heard in the district. There can be no question as to the probability of a subterranean sympathy betwixt the two localities, through the instrumentality of these dykes, or otherwise; and, though the series of events referred to above belong to an anterior age—far remote, indeed, from the human and all its traditions—a plausible origin is thus given to the name, in connection with an analogous series of events that did happen within the human period. IV. A vast historical interest, therefore, is to be attached to these hills, and their phenomena of veins, connected as they are with the first elevatory movements of the globe, and when form and outline were being given to its massive fullness. The hand of the Creator is clearly seen in raising them up from the depths below. Not a particle of the entire volume is in its original position, or that which it would of itself statically assume. God formed everything for use, while beauty and agreeableness of shape are inseparably combined. When viewed in the light of causation, it is not enough merely to say, and there to stop short, that we see in the outward face of nature the impress of power, wisdom, and goodness—that none of these things made themselves—that the rocks and mountains are an image of Jehovah’s greatness—the streams, plains, trees, corns, animals, the effect of His love and care. All this they unquestionably are, but they are more. Their arrangement and disposition, beside their mere existence, evince a continued superintendence—a purpose and a will to maintain an order and construction of elements which would otherwise separate and dissolve—a keeping together, and as one, each after their own kind, the inorganic and organic parts of creation. The philosophy, as well as theology, of these arrangements have been thus beautifully recorded: Thou coveredst the earth with the deep as with a garment, the waters stood above the mountains; at thy rebuke they fled, at the voice of thy thunder they hastened away into the place thou hast prepared for them. Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.—It is demonstrable that, were all the rocks which compose our mountain ranges and dry land to be dissolved and carried into the sea, the waters of the globe are sufficient again to cover and conceal from view their vast and multiform materials, and to replace them in those depths whence they originally arose.