it adjoined upon a
different level of flooring, was the merest hut, of one room, with a
line of box-beds dividing the sitting-place from a small space, which,
being rudely causewayed like a cow-house, had probably been employed
in keeping animals of some kind. Such was the humble _tuguriolum_ of
Willie Nicol of the 'peck o' maut'--an interesting memorial of the
simplicity of country life in Scotland at the close of the eighteenth
century. We did not venture to indulge in any dreamings as to festive
meetings between Burns and Nicol in this humble shed; for we felt that
here there was no certain ground to go upon. Enough that we could be
assured of Burns and Nicol having been together here; two most
singular examples of the peasant class of their country, and one of
them an unapproached master of his country's lyre, whose strains have
floated to the ends of the earth, and promise to last through many
ages.

The elements of the place, and the ideas connected with it were, after
all, too simple to detain us long. We only waited to snatch a slight
pencil sketch of the house and its adjuncts; and then, having taken
leave of the farmer and his wife, we retraced our steps to the road.
Somewhat unexpectedly, and not at all in keeping with the idea of
either Maxwellton braes or Laggan's many hills, we discovered in our
walk that the rough terrace-like ground over which we had passed
before coming in sight of Nicol's estate, was a _moraine_, or mass of
_debris_, produced and left there by a glacier. Its surface, thickly
covered with loose blocks of rock different from that of the district,
first fixed our attention; then looking into some openings which had
been made in the earth for building materials, we readily observed
that the internal constitution of the mass was precisely like that of
the moraines of the existing glaciers of the Alps, and of the similar
masses of drift scattered over Sweden--a confused mixture of angular,
slightly-worn blocks of all sizes, bedded in clayey gravel of a brown
colour. Such objects are rare in Scotland; but here is undoubtedly
one, though we cannot pretend to tell from what quarter it has come.
The thing most nearly resembling it in general appearance, which we
have ever seen, is an undoubted ancient moraine at a place called
Mosshuus, in the Valley of the Laug, in Norway.

One reflection arises at the conclusion of this trivial investigation,
and it is this--If so much doubt and obscurity ha