in the nclghbourhooil of St Andrews. 301 



or worn away, by rills, that it is difficult to pitch upon spots 

 which maybe presumed to be near the line of the original sur- 

 face. When you stand, indeed, upon the plateau itself, you 

 are apt to be confounded by the undulations which you see 

 near you, and it is when you take a somewhat distant view 

 that the linearity is most striking. There is another effect 

 of time which adds to the confusion, namely, the wearing 

 down of the ancient sea-clilFs above and below, which tends 

 to give the sectional line only a slight wave in some places. 

 It was necessary beforehand to pitch upon places which, at a 

 distant view, seemed unworn by the intersecting rills, and to 

 follow a line sufficiently distant from the ancient seacliflF, to 

 be unaffected by its debris. Mr Duncan did his best to walk 

 by these rules ; but he could not be expected, in the circum- 

 stances, to work out my wishes with perfect exactness. We 

 must also be prepared to allow for slight discrepancies, on ac- 

 count of presumable slight inequalities in even the original 

 line of the ground. Every here and there, along such an 

 esplanade as the West Sands, we may observe slight swells and 

 depressions of the surface. Besides, an uniform degree of ele- 

 vation is not predicated in the case ; a general lineai'ity with- 

 in a considerable space or tract, is what we may say is looked 

 for by the geologist. 



The accompanying map (Plate VIII.) contains Mr Duncan's 

 marks along the lines of the first and second plateau, namely, 

 ten marked levels in the first instance, and nine in the second. 

 Beginning with the first plateau at aninterestingcrustof it which 

 overhangs the eastern extremity of the East Sands, he goes west- 

 ward in a curving line to the south-east corner of the Strath- 

 tyrum policy, near Balgove, giving the following levels in suc- 

 cession :— 60, C2, G5i G8J, 70, 68^, 70, 74, 69, 74. The sixth 

 of these numbers (68 J- feet) is given at the spot where the line 

 crosses the Largo road. The eighth of the series (74 feet) is 

 given near Lawpark. I may here observe, that Mr Duncan 

 takes, as a datum line from which to mark his levels, the liigh- 

 waler mark, as presumed to be indicated by the abutment of 

 the arch which crosses the Kinness Bui-n at St Nicholas, llo 

 has also found by the spirit-level, that the gently sloping table- 



