The Ancient Lakes of Edinburgh. 133 



old lake marls, separated with difficulty from the white mud; 

 and the Ostracoda were loth to " rise again " from the charnel 

 dust in which they had been buried. The white clay was more 

 amenable to the persuasions of washing and boiling, and the 

 Ostracoda came forth in great numbers from the charnel 

 dust. There was very little vegetable matter in this clay, 

 merely thin ribbon-like stems of water plants, of which only 

 the epidermis remained. There were a few seeds of the 

 larger plants, and those of Chara were in thousands. 



The Holyrood Lake must Jiave been of very ancient date, 

 probably existing a long time before the building of the 

 xibbey or even the Palace — that time in sooth when the 

 "doe made its den" in the woods which we know once 

 occupied the site of Holyrood. 



CORSTOKPHINE LaKE. 



On the farm of Broomhouse, at the distance of several 

 hundred yards from Corstorphine Station on the line of the 

 short cut railway from the Forth Bridge, it was found necessary 

 to make a culvert for an underground water-course, and a 

 cutting 7 feet in depth was made for that purpose. The 

 soil cut into was not boulder clay or gravel as in other 

 cuttings in the neighbourhood, but lake silt and peat. The 

 silt was crowded with freshwater shells and Ostracoda, and 

 the peat was composed chiefly of the stems of water plants, 

 being essentially a water peat. The cutting was not seen by 

 us, and we cannot give details of the section. From answers 

 to inquiries, however, we learnt from the workmen that the 

 peat was not lying above the silt, but interstratified with it. 

 The 7 feet did not exhaust the silt with shells, which was 

 evidently several feet more, as the culvert had to be founded 

 upon concrete. The ground through which the underground 

 water-course ran is still slightly lower than the surroundino- 

 fields, and there can be no doubt that a small lake existed 

 here for a considerable time ere say 10 feet of silt and shells 

 could be formed, nearly every grain of which seems to have 

 been once organic. The plain in which this old lake occurs, 

 extending from Edinburgh to near Gogar, is said in the 



