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The jaw-bone with its teeth— now presented for your inspection— created 

 some little discussion as to the animal to which it belonged, owing to its 

 intermediate size between the lesser and larger rodents. It seemed to belong 

 to the roe-deer, but there was much doubt on the point. My friend, Mr. 

 Symonds, very kindly sent it to the Royal College of Surgeons, and the autho- 

 ritative decision there pronounced is, that it once belonged to a small goat 

 The question as to the age of the remains is one of manifest difficulty. 

 They are found full seven feet below the present surface, and who shall 

 say how long the lake must have existed to form a stratum of peat three feet 

 thick ? and still more difficult would it be to guess at the time required to 

 wash down from the hills the soUd three feet of brick clay above the peat. 

 "This deposit," says the Kev. P. B. Brodie, "though it doubtless must 

 have taken a considerable time to accumulate, is comparatively of a very 

 recent date. It belongs to the post-Pliocene formations, of which we have 

 numerous examples in this country, arid more especially in Scotland. The 

 shell marl is interesting as showing how many of our older tertiary fresh water 

 beds were formed. If it had been stUl more consolidated we should have had 

 an exact representation of certain lacustrine and fluviatile limestones, which, 

 though local, are rich in fossils, and aflrord a very interesting and instructivs 

 history of the periods at which they were formed. They usually contain 

 terrestial remains of animals and plants, and therefore give a better clue to 

 the nature of the fauna and flora of the land, than we can obtain by tha 

 marine deposits of the same tertiary epoch." 



A coloured section of the deposits was exhibited by Mr. Curley, with tha 

 jaw-bone found, and specimens of_the shells and leaves. 



