•1 TC I I N O L O G Y OF ANNANDALE.
to tho soufli ol' ScotliUKi, ill tlic valloya of tlio Nitli and Annan, in Dumfrios-sliire, we meet with iinmcrous and
varioil courses or trades oF foot])rints exposed in tlic working of tlic quarries. One of these areas of sandstone
being situate nearly in the centre of niy property, and tlie working of it liaving been for several years in
niy own bands, it lias afforded 0]ip0rtunities not previously possessed, of obtaining whatever was uncovered; and
it has been witli tlie view of extending, as far as possible, some knowledge of these remarkable impressions, that
tlie present series of illustrations, drawn from specimens of which the bulk and weight preclude examination except
upon the spot, has been attempted.
Tlie Dumfries-shire sandstones are now considered to belong to the New Red or Bunter formation ; and
by Mr. Thirkness, who has lately been applying hhnself with great energy to the working out of their position
anil distribution, they are thought to form one of the extremities " of the great Triassic formation, which
commcncing south of Appleby in Westmoreland, passes northward, ha\dng the mountain limestone for its eastern
boundary, until it reaches Dumfries-shirc." They occur in different areas or patches, in several localities, but are
best seen, either where naturally exposed in the valleys of the Esk, the Nith, and tho Annan, or in the quarries
in these districts where they are worked for building materials. One of those areas, of very considerable extent,
fills np the bottom of nearly the whole of the upper basin of the ^Viinan valley, above the ridge or barrier, at
Dormont Rocks, through which the river has made its way, and which separates it from the lower area or
basin, thought to be of a higher or later deposition. In this upper basin, the SANDSTONE ROCK reaches nearly to
the very extremity of the mam vaUey, at the same time foUowing the courses of the tributary streams and
hollows, ahnost as if it had been run up or carried into each in a Kquid state; and where interruptions occur, as
in some instances patches stand insulated or alone, it is evident that the intervening rock has been carried away
or denuded. In many of these water courses and streamlets, it has been hollowed away into chasms, partially
exposing the older and harder rocks at the bottom, often leaving miniature but picturesque cliffs and headlands
standing boldly out from their banl.s. It abuts or rests quite unconformably upon the Silurian Rocks, which
rise in hills of from two to three thousand feet of elevation, and bound tho basin or valley on the east, west,
and north. Upon the eastern side of the vaUey, the beds of sandstone, elevated to their present angle, can
be traced from the barrier previously mentioned, almost uninterruptedly to the very source of the river Annan.
Upon the western side they can only be traced along the whole of the intermediate and less elevated hills or
ridge, which di^ddes the two valleys of Nith and W n ; but they are interrupted on the north by the Queensberry
range, which runs into and constricts the valley fi-om about half its length upwards, and above that point, on the
western side, they are not seen in conjunction.
COENCOCKLE MuiK is an elevated ridge, of about a mile or a little more in length, situate nearly in the
centre of the vaUey from east to west, and at about two-thirds of its length from its upper or northern end.
I C I I N O L O G Y OF A \ N A \ D A L E .
At the northern extremity of this ridge, the Quarry of Corncockle is .vorked, and l.as supplied nearly tbo whole
stone used in the neighbourhood for many generations. Higher up the valley many attempts have been .nach.-
to open quarries ; but the rock becomes softer, in some instances so much so that it may l>e bruised by th<.
hand, or the beds become irregular and broken; and we are not aware that any i.npressions of footprints, or
traces of them, have occurred northward of this localitv.
The total thickness of the beds of stone worked in CORNCOCKLE QUARRY is about two hundred feet,
their dip is nearly from east to west, incHned at an angle of from 34" to 37". They are easily raised and
generaUy present surfaces of great evenness and uniformity. Sometimes they arc merely separated by a very
t h in layer of unctuous clay; and it is upon these latter that the impressions arc best preserved — the cast and
its mould separating easily and freely from cach other. The highest beds arc from a foot to four or five in
thickness, and upon them we occasionaUy find impressions of Chelichius duncani, but here these are far from
common. The deeper beds arc of less thickness and more variable, running from eighteen inches or a foot,
almost to the thickncss of a sheet of pasteboard; and it is upon these that the impressions of all tho difîbrent
kinds most iVequently occur — sometimes upon almost every bed that is raised. The same ajjpcars to have been
the case in previous workings of the quarry, for Dr. Duncan has left us an inq)ortant record of their frequent
occurrence upon tho bods worked twenty-four years before, and exactly similar to the conditions in which they
arc at jjresent found. In his paper, read before the Royal Society of Edinljurgh, and ])rintcd in their Transactions
for 1828, he observes—" Although tlie sandstone, at the place where the quarry was originally opened, contained
no footmarks, as it consisted of what is called by the workmen solid (/. i?. imperfectly stratified) rock, yet it soon
changed its character, and whenever it assumed the form of regular layers, the impressions began to occur. From
this ])criod, as the workmen proceeded in their labours, they have continued to find numerous impressions, particularly
in one part of the quarry, and that not on a single stratum, but on many successive strata; that is to say,
a f t e r removing a layer which contained footprints, they found perhaps the very next clay-face stratum, at the
distance of a few feet, or it might be of less than an inch, exhibiting a similar ]:)hicnomenon." On some ])arts of
the western edge of the CORNCOCKLE RIDGE, as at Templand Village, the rock, of a much coarser and harder
quahty, is disposed in very thin beds which are worked for flooring and roofing flags ; and upon their surfaces
the impressions of some of the footprints are found ; but they are generally more indistinct, from the flags tearing
or separating from each other, without any smoothed surface or without the intervention of clay.
N
I t is a curious fact, that nearly all the footprints are impressed as if the animal had walked from west
to east, or from where we presume the water to have been, towards the land. This appearance may have proceeded
f r om -the softer state of the sand at the ebl) of a tide, causing the tracks entering or approaching the water
to have been obliterated ; Avhile the returnino' ti-acks, Ijeing impressed in partially dried sand, have Ijccn prc.ser\ed,