ON TBE CRETACEOUS FOSSILS IN ABERDEENSHIRE. 333 



Cretaceous Fossils in Aberdeenshire. — Report of the Committee, consisting 

 oj T. F. Jamieson (Chairman), A. J. Jukes Browne, awl John 

 Milne (Secretary), appointed to ascertain the Age and Relation of 

 the Rocks in which Secondary Fossils have been found near Moreseat, 

 Aberdeenshire. 



Appendix. — On the Fossils collected at Moreseat, ly A. J. Jcjkes Browne, page 337 



Moreseat is in the parish of Cruden, in the east of Abei'deenshire. It 

 lies at an elevation of 300 feet above sea-level, and the surface of the 

 ground slopes to the sea at Cruden Bay, distant five miles to the south. 

 On the north the ground rises gradually, reaching the height of 4.50 feet 

 above sea in Torhendry Ridge, which is strewn with chalk-flints in great 

 abundance. 



Previous Investigations. — Geologists are indebted to Dr. William 

 Ferguson of Kinmundy for the earliest notices of Greensand at Moreseat. 

 In 1839 an excavation 9 feet deep was made for the water-wheel of a mill, 

 and a drain away from it, on the south side of the farm steading, a little below 

 the 300-feet lerel. The excavation was made in clay, and in it were 

 found layers of sandstone containing many fossils. The Rev. J. Johnstone, 

 Belhelvie, who lived at Moreseat at the time, says that the discovery excited 

 great interest, and that Moreseat was visited by scientific men, amongst 

 others by Professor Knight of Marischal College and University, Aberdeen, 

 who communicated with Dr. Thomson of Glasgow University on the 

 subject, and informed his class of 1839-40 that Greensand had been 

 discovered at Moreseat. Dr. Ferguson was a student in this class, and 

 thus had his attention directed to the Moreseat fossils from the first. 

 Hundreds of loads of clay were removed from the excavation, and many 

 fossils were collected ; but when the wheel was put in and built up, and 

 the drain was covered up, there remained no trace of the interesting 

 discovery. 



In 1849, on making a deep ditch alongside a road to the north of the 

 farm steading, and a little above the 300-feet level, the same clay, sand- 

 stone, and fossils were met with. Dr. Ferguson sent a notice to the 

 Philosophical Society of Glasgow.' Next year he visited the newly -made 

 ditch, and sent an account of the original discovery and a description of 

 what he saw to the ' Philosophical Magazine.' ^ Dr. Ferguson's description 

 of what he saw is quoted here, because it exactly coincides with what was 

 seen in subsequent excavations. ' An excavation about 7 feet in depth 

 was made, and the section presented irregular layers of unctuous clay, of 

 a dark brown colour and soapy feel, and so tough and adhesive as to render 

 it a work of considerable labour to dig it out. Interstratified with this 

 clay were thin layers of a compact sandstone. These layers of sandstone 

 were not continuous ; they graduated into each other, thinned out, dis- 

 appeared, and reappeared most confusedly. They were very much inclined, 

 dipping towards the south. The whole mass had much the appearance of 

 having been drifted ; although from the nature of the matrix, and the 

 state of preservation in which the shells were found, it did not appear as 

 if it could have been drifted far. The sandstone was tough and soft when 



' See Proceedings of the Society, vol. iii. 1849. • See vol. xxsvii. 1850. 



