The Ancient Lake of Elie. 149 
at four or five different levels, beds of peat (marked in the 
section a, b,c, d,e). The uppermost of these is 6 feet in 
depth. They are all full of land and fresh-water shells, to 
which I shall afterwards refer.” Dr Brown’s after reference 
is as follows :—“ Of the blown sand by far the best display is 
at the railway station, where, from the highest point of the 
synclinal down to the base of the deposit, there must be at 
least 20 to 30 feet of perpendicular depth. The highest bed 
of the enclosed peat is about 6 feet thick. The growth of the 
peat at its different levels, and the accumulation of this sand, 
shows that the lower portion of it must be of considerable 
antiquity. The great feature of the deposit is the profusion 
of land and fresh-water shells in the peat. I examined the 
last bed with some interest to ascertain whether any of the 
species were extinct, but found only the following :— 
Succinea putris. Helix nemoralis. 
Linnea peregra. >» sulva. 
Zua lubrica. 55° fUsCa. 
Pisidium pulchellum. »>. pulchella. 
Cyclas cornea. Pupa muscorum. 
Carychium minimum. Planorbis marginata. 
These are all recent, and most of them have actually been 
found by Dr M‘Bain, living near Elie. The only thing to be 
observed is that the immense number of these shells found 
in the peat seem to show that there formerly prevailed some 
peculiarly favourable conditions for the development of this 
form of life. At the same time it is clear that the climate 
must have been much the same as now, for the species are 
identical.” 
These descriptions are given in full, because Mr Wood and 
Dr Brown had opportunities of seeing these lake peat beds 
with shells when exposed from top to bottom in the railway 
cutting, and could, in consequence, judge better of the con- 
ditions under which they were formed than I—who have only 
seen it in or got it from chance diggings for drains, ete— 
could possibly do, and therefore their descriptions possess an 
authority which mine cannot have. 
My attention was specially directed to this shelly peat at 
Christmas 1889, when at Elie collecting specimens of the 
