Pentland Hills Research Articles

XIX.—On a Silurian Scorpion and some additional Eurypterid Remains from the Pentland Hills

In 1892 I communicated to this Society an account of a collection of Eurypterids from the Upper Silurian rocks of the Pentland Hills, in which I described new species and a new genus. Since that time I have had the opportunity of examining two other collections from the same locality. One of these was formed with the aid of a grant from the British Association. The fossiliferous bed—for these remains occur in a single thin bed of rock—was laid bare, and a considerable amount of it removed and split up. In this latter work I was fortunate to get the assistance of Mr John Henderson, the original discoverer of the locality, and I am glad to have this opportunity of recording my indebtedness to him. A fair number of specimens was thus procured, which not only threw considerable light on the structure of some of the already described forms, but gave evidence of some species as yet undescribed. More important than this collection, however, was the one formed by the late Mr Hardie of Bavelaw Castle, who had for many years collected among the Pentland Silurians. His collection was, on his death, acquired by the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, and Dr Traquair kindly put the collection in my hands for examination. From the size of the collection I expected some new and interesting results, and have been far from being disappointed. Seven new species of Eurypterids have come to light and one Scorpion.

X.—On Some Eurypterid Remains from the Upper Silurian Rocks of the Pentland Hills

The Upper Silurian rocks of the Gutterford Burn, in the Pentland Hills, have for some time been known to contain Eurypterid remains, but the fossils procured from these beds—chiefly owing to the exertions of Mr Hardy of Bavelaw Castle, and Mr Henderson, late Curator of the Phrenological Museum—have never been submitted to a thorough examination. When, therefore, by the kind permission of Sir R Murdoch Smith, Director, and Dr E. H. Traquair, Keeper of the Natural History Collection in the Edinburgh Museum, I was given an opportunity of examining Mr Henderson's collection, which was acquired by the Museum some years since, I entered upon the work with the expectation of finding some new and interesting forms which would repay description. My expectations in this respect have been more than fulfilled, as the collection has yielded five undoubtedly new species, one of which I have made the type of a new genus. If to these one adds at least two other new species which are in the collection of Mr Hardy of Bavelaw, and which I hope to have the pleasure of examining and describing at some future time, one is justified, I think, in saying that the Gutterford Burn is unequalled among Eurypterid localities with regard to the variety of forms it has yielded. Unfortunately the bed which has yielded these specimens is limited in extent, and further work on it would entail quarrying operations on a somewhat extensive scale.

Excursions [1884-1888

1884. 1. Glen Deans. Leader , Mr Mathison. 2. Largo District. Leader , Rev. E. Kennedy. 3. Sections on Suburban Railway and Salisbury Crags. (Joint Excursion with Glasgow Geological Society.) Leader , Mr Henderson. 4. Elie to Ardross. Leaders , Messrs Kinnear and Anderson. 5. Hawick District—Slitrig Valley. Leader , Mr Wilson. 1885. 1. Bathgate District. (Joint Excursion with Glasgow Geological Society.) Leader , Mr Young. 2. Polton for Bilston Burn. Leader , Mr Henderson. 3. Water of Leith from Currie to Slateford. Leader , Mr Henderson. 4. Parallel Roads of Lochaber and Ben Nevis. Leader , Mr Jolly. (Joint Excursion with the Glasgow Geological Society.) 1886. 1. Torbanehill and Bathgate. Leader , Mr Horne. 2. Loch Maree. Leader , Mr Jolly. (Both Joint Excursions with the Glasgow Geological Society.) 1887. 1. Bone Fissure at Dreghorn. Leader , Mr Macfie. 2. Burdiehouse. Leader , Mr Henderson. 3. Cousland. Leader , Mr Henderson. 4. Beith. (Joint Excursion with the Glasgow Geological Society.) Leader , Mr Craig. 5. Longniddry. Leader , Mr Fraser. 6. Pentland Hills. Leader , Mr Henderson. 1888. Joint Excursion with the Glasgow Geological Society to—1. Camps Quarries. Leader , Mr Conchie. 2. Oakbank Oil Works. Leader , Mr Fraser.

On reindeer and other mammalian bones discovered by Mr. Mafic of Dreghorn in a rock-fissure at Green Craig, Pentland Hills

In the succeeding pages I have prepared a list of Reindeer and other mammalian bones discovered at Green Craig, Pentland Hills, by R. A. Macfie, Esq. of Dreghorn, near Edinburgh. The remains were, in the first instance, sent to Dr Joseph Anderson of the Antiquarian Museum, and through him Professor Sir William Turner’s attention was directed to the bones, which were then presented by Mr Macfie to the Anatomical Museum of the University of Edinburgh. At Sir William Turner’s request I examined the bones, and have prepared a report on them, which I have now the honour of bringing before the Society. I have especially to acknowledge with gratitude the enthusiastic co-operation of Mr Macfie, upon whose estate the deposit was discovered, and by whose spontaneous energy the material was secured in the best possible condition. I may state at the outset that in this Paper I propose to deal exclusively with the osteological import of the ‶find,″ leaving its geological aspects to be discussed by my friend Mr John Henderson. The remains consist of bones and fragments of bone representing a number of animals. Thus we have recognised portions of the skeletons of five individuals of the Cervine group of deer; while the presence of the remains of two horses is evidenced by portions of two right radii; the probability of the presence of the wolf by a radius and ulna, and of the fox by teeth and portions of the lower jaw. The condition of the bones, as

On reindeer and other mammalian remains from the Pentland Hills

The Green Craig, where the fissure occurs in which these remains were found, lies on the north-west flank of the Pentland Hills, near the north-east end of the range, and about 1000 yards south of Dreghorn Castle. The craig stands at an elevation of a 1000 feet above the level of the sea, and is formed by an irregular range of rocks between two and three hundred yards in extent, facing north and north-west. The ground from the base of the craig slopes downwards at an angle of about 30° to the depth of nearly 200 feet. The angle of the slope is just what the weathered fragments of rock falling from the craig will rest on the hillside without rolling to the bottom, consequently the craig is not easily accessible from the front. To remedy this difficulty, Mr Macfie got a number of footpaths cut in a zigzag direction up the face of the slope and round the base of the craigs, placing seats here and there in convenient places, where the visitor can rest and view the splendid scenery which this hill commands. The face of the craig is not continuous, but is rather a number of craigs, separated here and there by grassy slopes running from bottom to top; and it was in making a path up one of these, whereby access could be got to the top of the craig, that the fissure was exposed wherein Mr Macfie discovered these remains. The north-east end of the

Excursion to the Silurian Rocks of the Pentland Hills. Mr. John Henderson. Leader. 17th June 1882

The party visited the various sections exposed along the valley between Bevelaw Castle and Habbies Howe. The first section examined is exposed about 250 yards south of Bevelaw Castle. Here the Silurian rocks have been quarried for a hard whin, which is used for macadamising the roads. The Silurian shales stand nearly vertical with the dike or bed conformably between. This has been described as an intrusive greenstone, but the members of the party were inclined to consider it a bed of hard grit of sedimentary origin. Mr Henderson explained that the beds were the highest in the section, and might be considered the equivalent of the upper portion of the Wenlock series, and that as the party went east they would be descending in the strata. Proceeding through the long dry valley that cuts the hills transversely from Bevelaw to Habbies Howe, the party examined the sections exposed on both sides of the valley, and especially one about half-way between Bevelaw and Habbies Howe, where the vertical Silurian shales are overlaid by nearly horizontal beds of coarse boulder conglomerate. At first appearance it looked as if the conglomerate had been faulted against the Silurian, but by clearing away the clay the Silurian shales were exposed lying under the conglomerate. Continuing through the valley, which at its western end cuts through a great depth of Silurian rock, and in the eastern portion through felstones and conglomerate, the party examined the large boulder of mica slate lying on the south side

Observations on Boulders and Drift on the Pentland Hills

Besides the boulders described by the late Mr Charles Maclaren in his “Geology of Fife and the Lothians,” and also by Professor Geikie in the “Edinburgh Memoir of the Geological Survey,” as having been carried from the Highlands, there are others which would indicate a transport from a different direction.On the highest summits of the Pentland Hills (Scald Law, Carnethy, South Black Hill, North Black Hill, and others which are composed of various varieties of porphyrites) are found numerous boulders of fine conglomerates, grits, and sandstones, intermingled with a few boulders of quartz, greenstone, and other rocks, all partially or entirely covered by a deposit of peat, which in some places on and near the summits of the hills attains a thickness of nearly six feet. The sandstone boulders vary in size from mere fragments up to large masses which I was unable to dig up.

On some recently discovered fossiliferous beds in the Silurian rocks of the Pentland Hills

A few years ago I read a short notice before this Society on some blocks of Fossiliferous Limestone which I had discovered in the Conglomerate at Habbie’s Howe, in the Pentland Hills. This Conglomerate, considered by Professor Geikie to be of Old Red Sandstone age, obtains a considerable thickness in this locality, and is well exposed in the gorge through which the Logan Burn runs from the higher valley into the lower about half-a-mile above the Loganlee reservoir. The Conglomerate is mostly composed of rounded and lenticular pebbles and blocks of Silurian grit and shale, without any appearance of fossils; but while examining the beds I discovered several masses of limestone, which upon inspection proved to be very fossiliferous. The limestone of which these blocks are composed has a coarse granular appearance, and is largely made up of corals of the genera Halysites, Heliolites, Favosites, and Petraia. Along with fragments of Encrinites and several species of Brachiopoda, it also contains a peculiar rounded body of a grayish colour, which appeared like a pebble in the limestone blocks. These Mr D. J. Brown, who accompanied me on several occasions, and myself, considered to be an organism; and on showing one of them to Mr Charles Peach he undertook to make a section from it for microscopic examination. This he succeeded in doing in a very satisfactory manner, and submitted the section to Mr Robert Etheridge, jun., who determined it to be a coral of a very fine structure; and, in a

2. Fifth Report of the Boulder Committee

The Committee had submitted to them Notes by the Convener of two visits to the West Highlands (including the Outer Hebrides) which he had made during the summer and autumn of 1878. These Notes, accompanied by diagrams of boulders and striated rocks, afford a large amount of information bearing on the subject of boulder transport, the direction of transport, and the agent of transport.There has also been laid before the Committee a report by William Jolly, of Inverness, one of its members, “On the Transportation of Rocks found on the Shores of the Moray Firth;” as also Notes by Messrs Somervail and Henderson (Edinburgh), “On Boulders and Striated Rocks in the Pentland Hills.”

2. Remarks on the Boulder Report

This Report contains information applicable to three districts of country, namely—1.Pentland Hills.2.Morayshire.3.Islands of the West Coast, and part of the Mainland.The impression hitherto had been, that the boulders on these hills indicated a movement exclusively from the north-west; and there is no doubt that the mica slate boulders on these hills indicate such a direction; but Messrs Somervail & Henderson, in the notes contained in this Report, have discovered a separate movement from the west-south-west, by the occurrence of certain sandstone blocks, which they think can be traced to a particular hill or hills in the Pentland range. This point is so important, that it is hoped further inquiry may be made regarding it.

Notes on Drift and Glacial Phenomena on the Pentland Hills

The following phenomena were noted by me during a number of visits I made to the Pentland Hills; but as my chief object then was to examine the older rocks, my observation on the recent deposits are by no means complete.

1. References, by Dr Charles Maclaren and Professor Geikie, to Striae and Boulders on the Pentlands

Mr M'Laren, in his “Geology of Fife and the Lothians,” states:—“There are few opportunities of observing ‘groovings’ on the Pentland Hills. I noticed them, however, at Westwater of Dunsyre, on the top of a thick bed of hard sandstone, from which 12 or 14 feet of alluvium had been removed. The dressings pointed exactly east and west; and the evidence was the more satisfactory, as the direction of the stream on whose bank the rock was situated, and of the valley in which the stream flowed, was south and north. They were very distinct, the larger groovings being about 1½ inch broad, and ths of an inch deep.

XVI. Recent Discoveries among the Silurians of South Scotland

No sooner were these ancient strata studied in earnest by geologists, instructed by the world-renowned achievements of Murchison in Siluria, than what appeared to be clear and unmistakable proofs of a definite sequence were discovered. The earlier investigators soon recognized the fact that, when viewed upon a large scale, they dipped apparently N. and S. from an axial line running from Berwick to Dumfries. In the neighbourhood of this line they had a very ancient appearance, reminding the geologist of the strata of the Longmynd, which, in Siluria, rise out from below the base of the Silurian system. A further resemblance was found in the fact that they were similarly destitute of all traces of organic life. Precisely as in Siluria, the rocks which surmounted these barren beds in the south of Scotland were found to contain an abundance of the little understood fossils known as graptolites. These graptolite-bearing strata were subsequently ascertained to form the floor of the whole of the Uplands to the north of the unfossiliferous beds, except near the town of Girvan in Ayrshire. There certain limestones and schists were discovered, crowded with fossils, the majority of which were identical with those of the Caradoc formation of Wales, which was known to succeed the great graptolite-bearing Llandeilo formation of that country. To the north of these Girvan beds, higher Silurians were detected in the Pentland Hills and at Lesmahagow, crowded with Upper Silurian fossils, and passing upwards into rocks belonging to the succeeding system of the

Observations on the higher summits of the Pentland Hills

The Pentland range, although one of the smallest in our country, is more diversified in its geological structure than any other, not even excluding the great chain of the Grampian Mountains. The Pentland Hills belong to three well defined geological periods or systems. One portion of the range is referable to the Silurian, another to the Old Red Sandstone, and another to the Carboniferous formation. The composition of the rocks which make up each individual hill is quite as varied. Some hills are composed entirely of the old lavas we now designate felstones and porphyrites, others are made up of sedimentary strata and consist of various slates, conglomerates, and sandstones. The range in its vital aspect is quite as much diversified, especially with regard to its vegetable covering. Some hills are from top to bottom covered with a smooth green turf, some with bent, and others with heather, while on many of the hills all exist more or less, and appear to struggle with each other for possession. The vegetable covering has in some cases given a name to the hills, such as Green Law and the Black Hill, the former being covered with grass, the latter with heather, which when not in bloom has from a distance quite a black aspect. The object of this paper is not, however, to describe the vital phenomena of the range, nor even its geological structure, but is entirely confined to certain changes the hills have undergone during and subsequent to the Glacial

Summer excursions of the Society. 1878,1879

1. 30th March. To Alnwick Hill. Leader, Mr R. A. F. A. Coyne. 2. 18th May (with the Geological Society of Glasgow). To the Camps Quarries, near Mid-Calder. Leader, Mr James Melvin. 3. 8th June. To Moorfoot Hills. Leader, Mr R. A. F. A. Coyne. 1879. 14th June (with the Geological Society of Glasgow). To the Pentland Hills (crossing the hills from Macbie Hill Railway Station, via Carlops, Cairns Castle, and Burnbrae, and proceeding down the Linhouse Water to Mid-Calder). Leader, Mr John Henderson.

Catalogue of the Brachiopoda of the Lothians and Fife

Members of Palaeontological Committee: — Alexander Somervail, Convener; Ramsay H. Traquair, M.D., Vice-President of the Society; John Henderson, Curator of Society’s Museum; David J. Brown, Councillor; Robert Etheridge, junior, F.G.S., Councillor; James Linn, Livingston; Thomas Smyth; Ralph Richardson, F.R.S.E., Hon. Secretary; George Lyon, Treasurer. INTRODUCTION BY THOMAS DAVIDSON, F.R.S. At the request of the Palaeontological Committee of the Geological Society of Edinburgh, I have read the manuscript of their ‶Catalogue of the Brachiopoda of the Lothians and Fife,″ and consider it to be as correct and complete as the material in their possession would enable them to make it. I feel likewise convinced that when all the known fossils from those counties will have been similarly catalogued, the Committee will have rendered an important service to science, and produced a work of reference that could not be too highly appreciated. Although rocks belonging to the Devonian period occur in the Lothians and Fife, Brachiopoda seem restricted to those referable to the Silurian and Carboniferous periods. All the 68 species catalogued have been figured and described in my monograph of ‶British Fossil Brachiopoda,″ and some of them in works of other authors. In Fasciculus i. of the Palaeontological series of the ‶Transactions of the Geological Society of Glasgow,″ 26 out of the 28 species recorded up to the present time from the Upper Silurian formation of the Pentland Hills will be found described and illustrated; the remaining two, having been subsequently discovered by Mr Henderson, are described in the ‶Transactions of

Notice of additional fossils from the Upper Silurian Series of the Pentland Hills

The fossil fauna of the Pentland Hills has been investigated from time to time by various observers, amongst whom may be mentioned M‘Laren,* Salter,† G. C. Haswell,‡ T. Davidson,§ and Messrs Brown and Henderson.‖ Through the kindness of the last named members of this Society, I have had an opportunity of examining a collection from these beds, and have succeeded in identifying several species not hitherto recorded from them, besides most of those mentioned by the foregoing writers. In addition, I find one or two other species which appear to be new or undescribed, descriptions of which are appended. In the succeeding list I have placed after the name of each fossil a reference to some well known work, where a figure or description may be found. Class ACTINOZOA. Genus Alveolites ( Lamarck ). Alveolites Labechii (M. Edwards).—Murchison’s ‶Siluria,″ 1867, 4th ed. pl. 40, fig. 8; Foss. 18, p. 119, fig. 5. Range in time from the Lower Llandovery to the Lower Ludlow. Occurs in the Pentlands as casts. Loc. —Bed D, near North Esk Reservoir, Pentland Hills. Cabinet of Mr J. Henderson. Genus Heliolites ( Dana ). Heliolites tubulatus (Lonsdale).—Murchison’s ‶Siluria,″ 1867, 4th ed. pl. 39, fig. 3; Foss. 19, p. 120, fig. 1. Ranges in time from the Caradoc to the Lower Ludlow. Very much decayed specimens, forming irregular cavities, are found in the Pentland Hills. Loc. —Bed D, near North Esk Reservoir, Pentland Hills. Cabinet of Mr J. Henderson. Genus Petraia ( Munster ). Petraia bina (Lonsdale).—Murchison’s ‶Siluria,″ 1867, 4th ed. pl. 38, fig. 5;

On the Silurian rocks of the south of Scotland: Part III. Wenlock and Ludlow rocks

Upper Silurian Rocks. —We come now to the upper division of this great Silurian formation, the Wenlock and Ludlow beds of Murchison. Rocks belonging to the Wenlock division have been long known to exist on the shore at Kirkcudbright Bay. They were first described by Mr J. Carrick Moore. Messrs Lapworth and Wilson have since found these same beds further along the same line of strike, as far as the centre of the Cheviot Hills. These rocks, Mr Lapworth says, belong to the Wenlock and Lower Ludlow, but from the list of fossils he has given, they do not appear to reach so high as the Ludlow series. In some recent investigations more species of graptolites have been found in the Silurian shales that occur at Habbie’s Howe.* These graptolites are G. Flemingii, G. colonus, G. priodon. These are also described as occurring in the Upper Silurian rocks of the Cheviot Hills, which seems to identify them with the lower rocks of Habbie’s Howe in the Pentland Hills. The Upper Silurian Rocks of the Pentlands. —These rocks, from their richness in fossils, have probably been for their extent better investigated than any other belonging to this formation. From the first discovery of fossils in them by Mr Charles Maclaren, there have been a number of papers published on them.† Since the date of the paper by Mr Henderson and myself, we have gone over them several times, adding to their fauna.* In the valley of the Lyne we have found a continuation

On some Silurian fossils from the Pentland Hills

The first discovery of fossils in the Silurian rocks of the Pentland Hills is due to the labours of a former President of this Society, the able and distinguished geologist Charles Maclaren, who previous to 1849 discovered an Orthoceratite near the top of the North Esk. This was all that was known about the fossils in this locality until 1858, when Professor Geikie found Rhynconella compressa. Betwixt that date and 1861, Professor Geikie, the late Mr Salter, and Mr R. Gibbs of the Geological Survey, added a large number of fossils from this district, a description of which was published in the Survey’s Memoirs, sheet 32, of the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. At that time only two localities were mentioned in which fossils had been found, viz., the North Esk, and the Silurian patch at Harehill, near Habbie’s Howe. Since then the late Mr George Haswell, Mr D. J. Brown, and myself, have added a considerable number of genera and species to Salter’s list. These have been brought under the notice of the Society from time to time, between the years 1864 and 1869. At this last date Mr Brown and myself added another locality to the two already known, viz., the district of the Lyne Water, where a number of organisms were got by us, only two of which could be determined, viz., Acroculia antiquata, and Pterinea retroflexa. Since that time, however, we have found beds containing a great abundance of Rhynconella Pentlandica, and Cythere umbilicata, clearly showing the relation

On some of the glacial phenomen of the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, as observed in the Pentlands, Blackford Hill, Bruntsfield Links, and Tynecastle Sandpit

I beg to call the attention of the Society this evening to the following glacial phenomena:— 1. Local Glaciers in the Pentland Hills. Last session I read a short paper on what I thought an old glacial moraine which occurs in a small lateral valley near the top of the Lyne Water. The following notice refers to another of a very similar description, occurring in a small valley that runs down into the larger valley of Habbie’s Howe. The description of the one would almost serve for the other. The valley here forms the water-course of a stream which, at first sight, appears as if it had cut the valley out of the solid hillside. The fact of its being cut mostly through moraine matter was brought to my notice when searching, with Mr John Henderson, for some beds of Silurian shale that cut obliquely across the bed of the stream; but, instead of the Silurian shales, we found a loose clay filled with stones, many of them beautifully scratched. We have first the Silurian rocks forming the mass of the hill out of which the small valley has been cut by the ice which left the moraine matter. This valley seems to have been filled up nearly level with the hillside. Through this moraine debris the present stream has cut its channel which forms the present valley. Last year when I read my paper, our President gave it as his opinion, that what I had described was not properly