The Scottish Naturalist. 315 



One of the most interesting objects obtained here is the ely- 

 tron of a beetle. It was taken from the cliff by Dr. F. Buchanan 

 White, who kindly informs me, that " upon examining the ely- 

 tron, I thought it belonged to Donacia, a genus of beetles that 

 is found upon plants growing in shallow water, or in marshy 

 places, but not a water-beetle. I sent it to my friend Dr. Sharp, 

 who says, it agrees very well with Donacia nigra, but the sculp- 

 ture is perhaps a little coarser than in that species. D. nigra 

 has not been recorded from Scotland, although it is found in 

 England, and occurs rarely in Scandinavia." 



One striking feature in these beds is the presence of a large 

 quantity of iron. In some cases thin compact sheets of this 

 mineral occur, in others, friable oxides, but the sand and pebbles 

 are often so solidly cemented that they look like masses of iron- 

 stone. All the springs in the lower portion of the valley are 

 highly charged with this mineral, and where these pass through 

 shallow drains, much of the iron is thrown down through evapo- 

 ration, and oxide produced by the decomposition of certain salts 

 of iron, sulphate and carbonate, &c, by the decaying vegetable 

 matter. Plants in the water-courses become quite coated with 

 red oxide. I believe Pitkeathly derives its mineral waters from 

 these beds. 



Opposite the dead-water, B, the cliff presents the same ap- 

 pearance and a corresponding sequence to that already exam- 

 ined. Thence I proceeded to E. Here the vegetable stratum 

 is well seen, but is somewhat uncertain, rising and falling in 

 broken undulations. Several large tree-trunks were protruding 

 from the vegetable layer, and several had fallen, and were 

 stranded on the pebble-bed. One of these was undoubtedly 

 birch (Betula alba), the others looked like oak, but this could 

 not be determined. One was marked with a spiral groove, as 

 though it had been firmly bound by a powerful climber. Some 

 exogenous leaves were also found, with more hazel-nuts, and a 

 nut of a smaller kind. I had before noticed blackened tree- 

 boles lying in the bed of the stream much lower down. 



The High Haugh is here only 17 feet above the river. I 

 had endeavoured to make out that this had been deposited 

 horizontally, i.e., that it did not follow the gradient or fall of 

 the valley. This lowered condition of the Haugh was favour- 

 able to that view, but it became less and less tenable as I pro- 

 ceeded. It was easily seen that it had been denuded in its 

 upper beds. 



