III.—On the Ballantrae Rocks of South Scotland and their Place in the Upland Sequence

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Abstract
Next to the metamorphic region of the Northern Highlands there is perhaps no area in Britain where the strata have been so contorted and convulsed as in the great Lower Palæozoic region of the Southern Uplands of Scotland, and it is only by the zonal method of stratigraphy that these complexities can ever be successfully unravelled. So far as the present results of the application of that method enable us to judge, it appears that, underlying all these stratigraphical complexities, there is, in reality, a broad tectonic structure of great simplicity. For, if we make exception, on the one hand, of the lowest strata (the Ballantrae or Arenig rocks), which, as we have seen, only rise to the surface within the limits of the Ballantrae district; and on the other hand of the highest formations (Wenlock-Ludlow), which merely skirt the Upland plateau upon its north-west and south-west flanks, we find that almost the whole of the Lower Palæozoic strata of the Uplands are naturally grouped in two grand lithological terranes, viz. (I.) a Lower Terrane (Moffat Terrane), including strata ranging from the Upper Llandeilo to the Upper Llandovery; and (II.) an Upper Terrane (Gala or Queensberry Terrane), embracing strata generally of Tarannon age.

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