The Ancient Lakes of Edinhurrjh. 135 



by the waters of an ancient lake, as the sections which I will 

 detail will prove. Upon the rock head lay 3 or 4 feet of 

 boulder clay ; above this were several feet of sandy clay in 

 which were two layers of Y)eat, one about two inclies, the 

 other about a foot in thickness. AVhat lay upon the sandy 

 clay was uncertain, as the ground had been much disturbed 

 by alterations caused by the operations of the quarrymen, 

 and sometimes quarry debris rested on it, and sometimes 

 what seemed to be natural soil, and at one place a patch 

 of boulder clay which, seemingly in its natural position, 

 would indicate an interglacial position for the old lake 

 silts and peat. But that this sandy clay with its layers of 

 peat belonged to some of the later stages of the glacial period 

 is certain, as in the middle of it were two trap boulders 

 standing side by side, each about 6 feet in height, and 2 or 3 

 feet in diameter, and only 4 or 5 inches apart. They seemed 

 as if they had been originally only one, and had been split in 

 two i7i situ. Eound these boulders the sandy clay had been 

 deposited, and the gap between was filled with vegetable 

 matter which had grown in the lake, and been drifted 

 into the gap or slit. Now it was in the laminated 

 clay at the bottom of these old lake deposits that tlie 

 shells and Ostracoda were found, and within 2 feet or 

 so of the base of these boulders under which the laminated 

 clay extended. 



From the washings of the peat many seeds were obtained, 

 25 species of which have been determined by Mr C. Eeid ; 

 and also many insect remains, chiefly beetles, nine species of 

 which have been determined by Mr C. 0. Waterhouse of the 

 British Museum. There was no marl in this old sjlacial 

 lake of Hailes, and the shells and Ostracoda occurred in 

 silt. 



There are other evidences which may be stated here that 

 seem to prove that the peats and silt found in the north- 

 east corner of Hailes Quarry were deposited in an interglacial 

 lake, or perhaps more correctly in the lake-like expansions 

 of a water-course or river. In 1886 a tirrins: in the south- 

 west corner of Hailes Quarry, directly beneath the farmhouse 

 of Kingsknowe, showed in section, first, upon the rock head 



