The Ancient Lakes of Edinhurgh. 137 



Ancient Lake at New Eediiall Quaiuiy. 



In 1874, when this quarry was first opened, a lake peat- 

 bed was disclosed beneath the boulder clay, and restiiiL,^ 

 partly on sand lying upon the rock and partly on a lower 

 boulder clay. A description and sketch of the section as 

 then exposed is given by Mr J. Henderson in tlie Trans, of 

 the Geol. Soc. of Edinburgh, vol. ii., p. 391. An attempt was 

 made to get the plant remains found in the peat-bed named, 

 but it was unsuccessful. At various tirrings since 1874, the 

 same lake peat-bed was exposed, and, though further attempts 

 were made to get the plants and other things named, nothing 

 effective was done till 1887, when Mr Clement Eeid, of the 

 Geological Survey of England, succeeded in naming about 

 46 species of plants, whose names and characters will be 

 found in his paper on the " Early History of the British 

 Flora," published in the Annals of Botany for August 1888. 

 At the same time, through the kindness of Mr Eeid, the 

 beetles found along with the seeds were submitted to Mr 

 C. 0. Waterhouse of the British Museum, who was able to 

 name about 30 species. The samples of peat from the 

 tirring of 1887 were got from the coup, the bed in situ 

 having been rendered inaccessible by a landslip. In 1889, 

 during another tirring, access was got to the peat-bed in situ, 

 and many samples taken from different parts of the bed 

 were subjected to improved methods of research, with results 

 far exceeding those obtained previously. The seeds and 

 beetles obtained, greatly surpassed in number those got 

 before, and the record will be considerably extended. One 

 interesting addition was a number of Ostracod shells, whicli 

 come as an agreeable surprise, for it has been generally held 

 by experienced students that these shells, whicli consist, 

 partly at least, of limy matter, would be dissolved by the 

 carbonic acid of the decaying peat, and nothing left to tell of 

 their existence in the lakes in which the peat was formed. 



The section in which the lake peat occurred in 1889 

 consisted of — (1.) sandy stony clay, presumably rotten boulder 

 clay, resting on the rock ; (2.) brown compressed vegetable 

 matter 4 inches in thickness, with only a few seeds of the 



