For the year 1827.
Fair days. Rain and snow. Mean heat. Mean of barometer.
171 194 44.23 29.12* At Thirlestane castle, on the banks of the Ettrick, and about 650 feet above the level of the sea, a very accurate register of the thermometer has been kept by Lord Napier since 1821, of which the following are the results. Thirlestane castle is situated in IV. Long. 3' 9', and in N. Lat. 26'.
Frosty mornings are prevalent even until the first of June, and it is only in rare seasons that the early varieties of apples and pears ripen properly. But in the valley of the Tweed, and the vicinity of Galashiels, which is lower and better sheltered, the temperature is greater; here there is less rain than its elevation and mountainous neighbourhood might seem to war rant, and of late years, when the summers have been warmer, plumbs, peaches, and even nectarines, have come to good flavour. However, there are reasons for thinkingt this may be attributed to the superior care and cultivation of modern times.
Around Selkirk and Galashiels, even the hills are subjected to the plough. Here wheat is raised even as a considerable part of the rotation; and such has been the improvement in the cultivation of the " golden grain," and so well is every process of its manage ment now understood, that it has often been raised 60 lbs. per Winchester bushel, 700 feet above sea level. is of rare occurrence, and smut is con sidered a proof of carelessness, and is still more sel dom to be seen.f In the upper valleys of Ettrick and Yarrow, tillage is confined to the !laughs and low ground contiguous. Although the attention is chiefly devoted to sheep and cattle, yet as most of the farmers must keep a pair of horses to drive fuel, and secure their crops of hay, they find it profitable and more convenient to have be tween 20 and 30 acres in a rotation of turnips, barley, hay, and oats, which otherwise might perhaps be more economically kept in pasture, for which the moisture and lateness of the climate renders it better adapted. Yet in favourable seasons, more luxuriant crops are nowhere to be met with; and, indeed, throughout the county generally, agriculture is as well understood and practised as in any district of the A small stout breed of horses was common to Sel kirkshire and Teviotdale in former times, some of which were capable of great action, and which, it may be regretted, have been superseded, during the last fifty years, by crossing with horses from Lanark shire, and in consequence, those now used ('or the plough much resemble that breed, but not so weighty and powerful.
There is an excellent breed of cattle, but more fit ( 6 for feeding than for milk," it having been the cus tom for many years past to purchase the bulls from Northumberland, of a breed perhaps too fine for the wet climate, and exposed pastures. Dairy farming is not practised.
Between fifty and sixty years ago, the blackfaced sheep, with coarse wool, were general, excepting on a few of the lowest farms near the meeting of the rivers, and they were for some time totally changed for the Cheviot breed. In 1793, when Dr. Douglas wrote his excellent survey, the whole number of sheep in the county were about 113,000, of which 36,000 were then blackfaced. Ten years ago there were none. Of late, a few farmers have again had recourse to them, as the low price has rendered the wool (the ori ginal cause of their banishment) of less consequence; and on the most upland farms, they are now confessed to be a surer and more profitable stock. There are at present about 2500 of the original breed, and they are likely to be increased. In the meantime, great attention and skill is directed to the improvement of both kinds; and this has been stimulated and kept up principally through the benevolent and patriotic exer tions of Lord Napier, who, at the end or the war. returning from sea, rebuilt the "mountain home" of his ancestors, and betook himself to sheep-farming, as a rational amusement. By his lordship's influence, a pastoral society was formed, which is very nume rous, including many from the adjoining districts. It has a great annual meeting, and distributes premiums For the best cattle and horses, as well as sheep. It may now safely be averred, that in no district of Scot land is so much skill and care directed to sheep farm ing. Perhaps, in some respects, this has been car ried too far. _A great proportion, particularly of the western part of the county, consists of a deep sort clay along the slopes of the hills, and forming the bottom of the narrow valleys. For almost one half the year, this kind of soil was formerly surcharged with water, and it was never in a dry state. A kind
of rush called sprett, and a scirpus called pry, (juncus articulatus and scirpi, var. sp.) occupied the ground almost exclusively. These sloping bogs were care fully drained, and another kind of herbage took pos session. But the pry is an evergreen, and the sprett begins to spring in the end of April; and so they were found when most wanted. Again, it was dis covered that the moles with which the rich dry green pasture was overrun, and annually topdressed, became partial to the newly drained bogs, and tapped the dams, and let out the water. Mole-catchers were in troduced from Lancashire; and in twenty years, a mole became as rare as a hedgehog. Some of the old people go the length of saying, that since the bogs were drained, and the moles destroyed, their farms have neither kept so many sheep, nor fed such fat lambs as formerly. Moreover, a vexatious disease has, within the same period, been gradually increas ing,* ascribed by many to the above causes. But we have not room to be more minute, although the sub ject is both curious and interesting in many respects. t The transition series of rocks, and that of remark able uniformity, prevails throughout the whole of Selkirkshire. It is entirely schistose, consisting of gray wacke and slate, with one interesting exception to be afterwards mentioned.$ The stratification is regular, on a great scale, running ftom S. W. to N. E. with various dips. At Newhouse Lynns, about se ven miles above Selkirk, where the Ettrick has cut its way through the barrier of an ancient lake to the depth of a hundred feet. the thin strata of gray wacke and soft slate is bent to a curve of more than 220°. The same phenomenon is to be observed on the Yar row below Newark, in the direction of the strata, and about four miles distant. Near the junction of both rivers, the gray wacke contains so much iron that it is of a brownish yellow for a thickness of 800 yards or more. The town of Selkirk is partly found ed on another variety, containing many veins of heavy spar. Mountainous masses of feldspar and feldspar-porphyry rest upon the schistose rocks near the junction of the formation. These masses reach nearly in one direction from St. Abb's Head to near Selkirk; but do not enter the county. Dirrington Laws and Colding Knolls in Berwickshire, and Eilden Hills and Whitelaw Kips, consist of this rock.§ A curious anomaly occurs in the N. W. of the county. Along the lofty range already mentioned that separates it from Peeblesshire, there run thick strata of beautiful porphyry of various shades of co lour, from nearly blood-red to brownish yellow. It is observed first overlying the clay slate that has been long wrought for sale at Grieston, a mile west from Traquair. The direction is through the centre of Windlestmlaw. The schistus and it continue over lying one another for a distance of nearly three miles across; the most southerly porphyry being near Hol lylee. But what renders this more interesting, there is found alternating, with this porphyryd thin strata of flinty slate, clear gray porphyry, gneis, and gra nite. Now stratified granite is mentioned by Profes sor Playfair, as having been discovered by Sir James Hall and himself in Fasnet Water in Lammermoor, and he mentions it as having been found likewise at Loch Ken in Galloway. There is therefore great pro bability that the granite and gneis of these three pla ces are a continuation of the same strata, for the in termediate point is nearly in a line with the other two, and not far from the line of direction of the under and overlying slate and gray wacke. The flinty slate has been observed in glens connected with the bead of the Yarrow in the requisite direction. Both the latter and the gray porphyry are of great hardness; the por phyry ringing like metal when struck on a large block, and taking a high polish, and the slate giving fire with steel. Sometimes the gray wacke runs into amygdaloid, and veins of black carbonaceous slate, intermixed with pyrites, occur in divers places. Pie ces of insulated galena have been found in the course of the porphyretic strata near Traquair, and trials to find lead have been made repeatedly without success. A considerable quantity of ore of antimony was found in digging a well at Traquair manse. No limestone has yet been discovered, but in two or three places there are springs supersaturated with carbonate of lime, and generally in lines, indicating, that in their way to the surface they pass over considerable mas ses of calcareous rock.