Possible Arctic Pla?it-beds hi Ireland. 73 



The places where these lake-deposits with the Arctic plants 

 and the Apus were got are Hailes Quarry, about three miles 

 west of Edinburgh, and in a sewer-cutting through the old 

 silted-up lake of Corstorphine, about four miles west of Edin- 

 burgh, the first being 150, and the latter 50 feet above sea- 

 level. The deposits cut through at Hailes were 10 or 12 

 feet of sands and grits, with occasionally patches of peat, 

 layers of vegetable drift-wrack, with pieces of drift-wood. At 

 Corstorphine, 4 or 5 feet of sands, then marl with the 

 ordinary lake-shells — Cyclas and Pla?wrbis being the most 

 common ; and the ordinary water-plant stems in such numbers 

 that the marl was felted by them. At the bottom of each was 

 the silt with the arctic plants, with the Apus remains inter- 

 spersed in fragments. 



Such is a bald statement of what was got in these old lake- 

 deposits, but enough, it is hoped, to show that they are 

 worthy of investigation wherever found, as by them we may 

 know something of a land of which we know little — the land 

 of the later times of the Glacial period ; a land on whose hills 

 the only trees that grew were the creeping willows, and in 

 whose waters the liveliest creatures were the crawling Apus 

 glacialis. 



A description of the methods b}^ which these results were 

 obtained will fitly close this notice. 



If the plant-remains occur as layers in silt or clay, the 

 matrix should be dried thoroughly, then crushed gently with 

 the hand in a basin of water, when the silt will part readily 

 from the leaves or debris — some of the leaves and seeds and 

 mosses will float, but others will sink. When the silt is 

 thoroughly melted or divided, allow the water to settle ; then 

 pour it off into a sieve, and then as many of the leaves, &c, 

 as floated will be got with as little breakage as possible. The 

 remainder should also be sieved in the same way. Sieves of 

 different meshes are useful, say from \ of an inch in width, to a 

 fineness of 90 in a lineal inch. Sieves about 6 inches square 

 and 1 inch in depth, made of tin, with a wire round the top, 

 and the bottom turned inwards \ of an inch, to which the 

 brass wire cloth should be closely soldered, will be found con- 

 venient. 



If the leaves should be in peat, then the peat should not be 

 dried, but taken soft as lifted, and crushed or bruised in water 



