148 Proceedings of the Royal Physteal Soctety. 
sf 
XIV. The Ancient Lake of Elie. By JAMES BENNIE, Esq., 
and ANDREW Scort, Esq. 
(Read 19th April 1893.) 
PART I. 
By James BeEnniz, of the Geological Survey of Scotland. 
The deposits which first proved the existence of this 
ancient lake were laid open in making the East of Fife 
Extension Railway in 1863, and the earliest published notice 
of the lake peat deposits with fresh-water shells is contained 
in a communication by the late Rev. Walter Wood, of Elie, 
read to this Society on 25th November 1863, and published 
in vol. iii, page 125, of our Proceedings for 1863-64, As 
Mr Wood’s paper consists of a general description of all the 
strata cut through by the railway from Kilconquhar Station 
to Anstruther, a distance of six miles, the notice of the lake 
deposits is brief, and may be given in Mr Wood’s own 
words :—‘“ Above the clay (containing the Arctic shells) is a 
layer of peat, which first appears in the cutting. between the 
bridges (the bridge under the Kilconquhar road and the Elie 
station bridge) as several thin’seams with sand (apparently 
blown sand) intervening. They dip rapidly toward Elie 
station, where they form a bed of peat not less than 10 or 
12 feet thick, mixed with much sand and many fresh-water 
shells.” 
The next notice of this lake peat with shells is contained 
in a paper by the late Rev. Dr Thomas Brown “ On the 
Arctic Shell Clay of Elie and Errol, with other Local and 
more recent Deposits,” read before the Royal Society of Edin- 
burgh, 4th March 1867, and published in the Z'ransactions, 
vol. xxiv., page 617. Dr Brown gives a section as exposed 
in the cutting from Elie Station westward to the bridge 
under the Kilconquhar road, the upper part of which con- 
sisted, he says, ‘of blown sand of very considerable depth;” 
and adds, ‘‘all through it contained numerous dark layers, 
showing former surfaces, and containing land shells, especially 
the Succinea putris. Besides these there were intercalated, 
