a Boulder-clay.

b A mass of gravel in the clay.

c A tongue of gravel from the bed of gravel and sand above.

d Films of gravel descending from the incumbent gravel into the boulder-clay.

When this boulder-clay rests upon rocks, it fills up the inequalities of the surface, as at the flooded quarry at Granton, or, as at Joppa quarry, it rests on the even horizontal crop of the highly inclined beds of sandstone and shale. In the last of these examples, the colour of the mass, and the appearance of the boulders in a layer, give indications that we are looking at the higher portion of the clayey part of the bed near to its passage into the sandy layers.

To the west of Gilmerton House, in a sandstone quarry to the south of the Parrot coal-pit, the crop of the beds is covered by a sandy boulder-clay, which has been in motion in an easterly direction, and by which it has squeezed or bent the decomposed ends of the beds of sandstone and shale towards the southeast. Fig. 4.

It thus appears that the boulder-clay is part of a series of

beds which must be regarded as constituting one formation, the stratification of the whole being conformable, and the transitions of one member into another of rather common occurrence. The inferior or oldest portion resting on the basement bed, is destitute of all traces of stratification, while the boulders are isolated in their clayey paste, which, on enveloping them, was so viscous as not to permit them to subside towards the bottom. The surfaces of many of the boulders are rubbed. This dressing could not take place in the bed, for the masses are not in contact. If before their mixing with the clay, then are we to suppose that they were the rubbers of the rocks, and that they were rubbed by the same process; still we must view them as having been connected with a tenacious clay to secure their sliding, yet allowing them occasionally to shift their position or expose a new face to the rubbing agent. This part of the process appears to be involved in great obscurity.

Although the clay was sufficiently dense to retain the boulders floating confusedly in its substance, it was fluid enough to admit of motion in an easterly direction. It has now, however, parted with much of its original water, and must, by its consequent shrinkage, have produced many unequal pressures on the neighbouring materials.

The sandy portions, or the upper parts of the formation, furnish proof of numerous intermittences in the condition of the watery medium in which they were deposited. The layers of sand are sometimes very fine, indicating a period of comparative tranquillity. The gravel furnishes proof of considerable velocity, while the irregularity of the materials, the numerous interruptions, removals, upfillings, and inclined layers, give evidence of several periods of repeated turbulence. The gravel pits near Lochend, and likewise those at Dalry, furnish very varied and instructive examples of this intermittent action.

It would be vain at present to seek for causes sufficient to explain the phenomena indicated by the series of closely connected facts which we have now enumerated and described. The droppings of melting icebergs and the moraines of glaciers, with all the adjuncts of submergence and elevation,

may account for a small portion of these facts, but in this case the residual unexplained phenomena will prove in excess.

The excavation of our valleys, the rubbed surface of our rocks, and the incumbent superficial strata, have some important features in common, which the speculative geologist should keep steadily in view. The easterly direction of the agents appearing so prominently through the whole series of the phenomena, is an important element, nor is the presence of the assorting power of water in the basement and upper beds to be viewed with indifference. That a debacle of a singular kind has taken place, will scarcely admit of a doubt, although that notion is not free from difficulty, even if able to call to our aid waves of translation. We cannot explain the phenomena, but we trust the reader will give us credit for having indicated the facts of the case with sufficient minuteness and method, so as to point out the character his inductions should exhibit, and justify the designation Taragmite series which has been bestowed on the group.

There is very little to communicate illustrative of the animal and vegetable life of the period of the Taragmite deposit of the district. The only organic remain, indeed, which has been detected, occurred in a somewhat anomalous condition, and all that is known respecting it may be given in the words of Mr Bald, the intelligent engineer, who with praiseworthy zeal endeavoured to record all the circumstances of the case.

"As the Union Canal, which is now making betwixt this city and Falkirk, passes for twenty-eight miles through a country chiefly composed of this kind of cover, I took the opportunity of noticing if any organic remains were found in it; and I requested my friend Mr Hugh Baird, civil engineer, who directs the canal operations, to be particular in his inquiries if any such remains were found, and to give me notice. Having been frequently along the canal with him for these last three years, I had an opportunity of investigating the excavations as they proceeded. No appearance of any animal or vegetable remain, however, was found until the 18th day of July last, when the workmen, who were cutting the canal, in the west park of

Cliftonhall estate, having undermined a large bench of earth, it fell, and a substance, which the workmen conceived to be the horn of an animal, was found amongst the earth, which, as a matter that attracted their curiosity, they laid in a cottage adjoining.

"Two days after this, in going along the canal, I met with Sir Alexander Maitland Gibson, who informed me that a singular remain of an animal had been found in cutting the canal through his estate; and he politely accompanied me to the cottage, that I might see it. On its being produced, I found it to be an ivory tusk, in most complete preservation. After taking its dimensions, and making a drawing of it, I went to the spot where it was found, and questioned the workmen particularly concerning it. According to their information, the spot where it was enclosed in the earth was from 15 to 20 feet from the surface; the earth or cover was of the strong old alluvial earth before described, and at the point where the banks begin to decline, and form the immediate narrow valley through which the river Almond runs. In the upper part of the earth where the tusk was found, I observed fissures about five inches wide at the top, and ending like a wedge below, formed by rents in the clay, and filled with sand. I have, however, reason to conclude, that the tooth had not been in the sand-veins, but enclosed in the clay; for, otherwise, it could not have been in such a complete state of preservation. From the close texture of the clay, and being so impervious to water, the tooth might, I think, have remained for ages in the same state. This spot I afterwards had the pleasure of examining, along with Professor Jameson, when I pointed out to him the situation where the tusk was found.

"The tooth weighed, when washed, 25 lb. avoirdupois, and measured as followed:

And the inside curve deflected from the cord-line 4 inches

and 2-10ths of an inch.

"As the specimen interested me much, more particularly as it was the only instance of my having found any organic remain in this kind of cover, I suggested to Sir Alexander Maitland Gibson to take particular care of it. He accordingly told the workman who found it, to send it to the house at Cliftonhall, where he would give him a gratuity for it. The workman, immediately upon understanding that what he conceived to be a horn was ivory, and very valuable, went off to Edinburgh with the tooth, and sold it. Sir Alexander, the instant he heard of this went in search of it, and found it in an ivoryturner's, who had given £2 for it; but, most unfortunately, before he arrived it was sawn across in three places, and part of it prepared for the lathe, to form chessmen ; which circumstance shews the high state of preservation in which it was found. Sir Alexander repaid the money which had been given for it; and he has in the most obliging manner, permitted me now to exhibit it to the society."-(Memoirs of the Wernerian Society, vol. iv. p. 53.)

Little doubt need be entertained that this tooth belonged to a mammoth, and we may hope that other portions of the organism may be detected in the district. But grave doubts may be entertained as to its connection with the boulder-clay epoch. A fissure in the clay may have received the tooth and clay washed in along with it, and hence the state of preservation may be satisfactorily accounted for.*

I am aware that many organisms have occurred connected with clay in other districts, but proof is wanting that such clay

* A portion of a tooth, much decayed, and without a label, exists in the Edinburgh Museum, which probably formed a part of the Cliftonhall specimen. Another part of a tooth, less decomposed and identical in character with the figure, plate 4. fol. 3, ib., and equally unlabelled at present, is, without doubt, the specimen presented to the museum by the Earl of Eglinton. This tooth was found in the tirring of the sandstone quarry of Greenhill, in the parish of Kilmaurs, Ayrshire, in 1817, and preserved by the considerate zeal of Mr Robert Brown, tacksman. It was accompanied by another tooth, along with some small bones and several marine shells. These occurred in a light brown clay, the immediately surrounding portion of which was of a dark colour, and when turned up had a most offensive smell."-(Ib. 64.) These circumstances seem to indicate that the Kilmaurs deposit belongs to the Phanerite series.