The Ancient Lakes of Edinlmrgh. 127 



for what they are in themselves, and the circumstances and 

 conditions they represent — still waters and green pastures — 

 but also for the contrast they afford to the fire-raised rocks 

 or the ice-laid hillocks they lie among. The crags remind 

 us of volcanic eruptions with lava streams and clouds of 

 ashes, earthquakes and rock-rendings, or injections of molten 

 matter; and the hillocks remind us of ice in all its varied 

 forms and actions — ice-sheets, glaciers, and icebergs, — disrupt- 

 ing rocks by ice wedges, and grinding them to powder by its 

 pressures exerted by the weight by thousands of feet of 

 thickness, and its carrying powers when in motion, by which 

 it transports rocky debris hundreds of miles and deposits it 

 in these hillocks. Visions such as these, suggested by the 

 environments of the lakes, contrast finely with those derived 

 from the life-remains found in these lake marls, silts, or 

 peats, glimpses of quiet lakes in which the liveliest life is 

 that of the pond snail {Limnea), or of the water fleas 

 (Ostracoda) , — the one creeping slowly along the surface of the 

 water at its proverbial pace, the other darting through it in 

 little leaps, or nibbling the green confervte on the leaves or 

 stems of pond weeds ; or the still quieter life of the lake peat 

 period represented by the seeds found in them, which tell 

 only of vegetable growth which the eye cannot detect, and 

 we only know by a comparison of now and then. 



From these remarks an idea may be had of the object of 

 this paper. It is intended to give brief notices of the 

 localities and positions from which the lake marls, silts, or 

 peats were obtained, and then either separate lists or a 

 general list of the Mollusca and Ostracoda found in each. 

 The notices will necessarily be brief, and confined mainly to 

 the acquirement of the silts or marls, without any lengthened 

 or detailed statement of the circumstances under wdiich each 

 was deposited. But in one case — that of the marl from the 

 Meadows — we have a description of the lake deposits, and of 

 the manner of their deposition, so far exceeding any we can 

 of our own knowledge give, that a summary of it may be 

 given, referring those who wish for further details to "Edin- 

 burgh and its Neighbourhood," by Hugh Miller, pages 6-10 

 and 134-147. Mr Miller tells us that in 1842 the Meadows— 



