From Robert Chambers to William Kemp   22 November 1847

Dear Sir,

Mr Mitchell’s view of the levels on the Eildons and neighbourhood reached me this morning. It seems to have been done with all proper pains, and yet it leaves me in great perplexity, giving some of the heights so differently from both you and me. For one thing, Mr Mitchell makes the hill 1409 feet. The top of the Quarryhill is, in his list, 565. The first shelf on Easter hill (which I made 605) he makes 727, if I apprehend his notes rightly. But what makes all this the more strange is that the second shelf of Easter hill and top of Gattonside hill is only 2 feet different from my measurement, which is about the discrepancy I should have expected in all cases. How can all this be accounted for? There being so little likelihood of a regular engineer making mistakes, I am forced to surmise that we have in various instances been at different objects, or at different levels of the same shelves, in which case we must suppose them to be inclined and not level. I send a sort of table of all the measurements, which I beg you will look carefully into, so as to give me, if possible, some light on all these perplexities. If this cannot be done, I must give up the Eildons altogether, which would be a pity, as I have a strong notion that there is sense and significance in these markings if we could find it out. If necessary, employ Mr Mitchell to make new trials. I have told him that this may have to be done.

Yours very faithfully, | R. Chambers.