XVI. On the Carboniferous Sections of the Levern Valley, Renfrewshire

Abstract

Physical features of the district. —The Levern valley, in the south-west of Renfrewshire, is bounded on the south by the trappean district, which extends over the parish of Mearns and part of Neilston; on the north-west by the Fereneze range, and to the north it flattens out towards the undulating and knolly district south of Paisley. From its western extremity at Crofthead, it gradually opens out towards the Clyde, until it attains a width of more than 2½ miles from Waulkmill glen on the south, to Crookston Mains, where the carboniferous strata are interrupted by an igneous dyke which forms their northern boundary. A line between these two places across the districts of Darnley, Nitshill, and Hurlet may be considered its eastern extremity. A ridge in the centre of the valley, extending from Wardhill at its eastern extremity, to the west of Barrhead, divides it into two portions, each having its own water-course; the Aurs water united with the Brock, in the southern; the Levern, in the northern. The ridge is formed of thick-bedded sandstones which crop out to the north, and are prominently exposed at intervals throughout the valley. Kirkton burn flowing from Colinbar glen, crosses the valley diagonally at the western outcrop of the thick-bedded sandstones, and joins the Levern water between Cross-Arthurlie Works and Levern mill. These streams flowing from the high moorland districts in the south, over the trap formations above the valley, together with the various rivulets by which they are augmented, have exposed the various This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract