Discovery of Late Glacial Implements in Galloway. 329 



for such weapons are really found in the oldest of these old 

 shore shingles. And not only so, an elegant flint saw was 

 extracted from undisturbed beds some 3 ft. deep in the 

 terrace between the Free Church manse and Drummore, 

 where a landslip had produced a fresh exposure. Some worn 

 wrought flints were also taken from the same bed at a depth 

 of 5 or 6 ft. Since that time numerous implements have 

 been found stratified where, then, I would have thought it 

 ridiculous to search for them, in positions even as at Biawn 

 Heugh (height between 175 and 150 ft., and higher still) that 

 yield plain evidence of considerable glacial activity, and 

 these are not at all dubious forms, but display elegant 

 workmanship. 



Two observers at least have made pretty extensive collec- 

 tions of implements similar to some of the groups found in 

 Kirkmaiden, but neither w^as aware of the great age that 

 must be attributed to them. For a knowledge of the re- 

 searches of one of these I am indebted to the kindness of Mr 

 Macconnochie of the Geological Survey. A description of 

 Mr Smith's observations on the Ayrshire coast between Salt- 

 coats and Troon appears in the Trccnsactions of the Geological 

 Society of Glasgow for 10th April 1879. It seems that the 

 implements there are much the same as those on the lower 

 beaches here. They contain a liberal representation of what 

 I have called quarter- spires, twisted, elongated, mesially- 

 rido-ed arrow-heads, with a transverse section either in the 

 form of an equilateral or isosceles triangle. Similar forms, 

 untwisted, and either blunt or sharp pointed, are found at 

 Kilstay, in beds between 50 and 75 ft. above datum line, and 

 cropping out from below those in which the Low Curghie 

 group of implements is . found. But these beds are sloping 

 downwards from the old shore, and are considerably below 

 it, which may account in some measure for the large propor- 

 tion of such implements found at greater heights near the 

 Mull of Galloway. Mr Smith considers that all the imple- 

 ments found by him have been allowed to drop into the sand 

 from the surface of the ancient soil covering it. The sand 

 itself is underlaid by two fossiliferous beds just as the sand 

 and gravel-beds between the head of Luce Bay and Loch 



