106 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



Eev. T. Brown, M.A., " On the Arctic Shell-clay of Elie and 

 Errol, viewed in connection with our other Glacial and more 

 Eecent Deposits." * Having, three or four years since, spent 

 a short time at one of the above localities, Elie, I beg to lay 

 before the Society a few remarks on certain of the beds 

 described by Mr Brown. In doing so I wish to add my mite 

 of testimony to the very accurate manner in which Mr Brown 

 has made his observations. The object of the present paper 

 is twofold ; first, to notice more in detail the organic contents 

 of one or two of the beds described in the above paper, and 

 to add a few more facts bearing on certain of the strata in 

 particular. 



At the time the Eev. Mr Brown's survey of the Elie neigh- 

 bourhood was made, three exposures of the post-tertiary 

 deposits were visible. The " Elie Shore Section," extending 

 along high water mark, east from the harbour wall ; the 

 " Elie Inland Section," in the railway cutting immediately 

 west of the station ; and the Cocklemill Burn, or " Elie 

 Transverse Section," at the east side of Largo Bay. The first 

 and last of these are only now visible, as the railway cutting 

 section has become obliterated. My remarks will chiefly 

 refer to the Cocklemill Burn section. In the details of the 

 section to the east of Elie Harbour, which has now become 

 so well known from the arctic character of the organic 

 remains found in the lower part of the bed, I quite coincide 

 with Mr Brown. His divisions are from above downwards — 



1. Blown sand in layers, 4 to 6 feet, hardening in the lower portion into a 

 kind of concrete, 



2. A thin raised beach bed of shingle and marine shells. 



3. A layer of peat, 5 to 10 inches in thickness. 



Unconformity. 



4. Arctic shell-clay — in the upper part consists of layers of deep brown 

 sand with thin partings of coal shale, passing downwards into a stiff, unstrati- 

 fied, tenacious, sandy clay, with intensely arctic shells. 



The beds 1 to 3 are still to be seen as described, although 

 a good deal defaced by the scrambling up and down of the 

 numerous visitors to the place. It would be quite impossible 



* Tram. Boy. Soc, Edinh., 1867, xxiv., pt. 3, p. 617. 



