714 EEPOET— 1892. 



Crosskey, and others have made further inquiries, but have obtained very little 

 additional information. The well was built up, and in other wells sunk in the 

 immediate neighbourhood the clay had not been found. At most, it seems to have 

 been a limited strip or patch. 



Its very limited extent, the absence of marine organisms in the overlying 

 boulder-clay, and the highly arctic character of the only species of shell known 

 with any certainty to have been found in it appear strong objections to its being 

 considered a true marine bed. On the other hand, there are probabilities, from its 

 position, &c., of its having been transported by land ice. It is submitted that 

 further attempts to find the clay again, and re-examine it, are very desirable. 



II. Clava and other Northern Localities. 



The shelly clay found at Clava, near Inverness, 500 feet above the sea, and 

 described by Mi-. James Fraser, C.E. (' Trans. Edin. Geol, Society,' vol. iv.), is 

 thought by some to be a clearer proof of submergence than that which was found 

 at Chapelball. The shelly sands and gravels, which occur at lower levels in 

 Aberbeenshire, &c., are usually referred to along with it. It occurs imder some 

 45 feet of boulder-clay and 20 feet of stratified sand. Was it laid down by the 

 sea where now found ? It seems to be of very limited extent, and the overlying 

 sand and boulder-clay furuisli no proof of marine origin, as they contain no organic 

 remains. Thus the difiiculties presented by Ohapelhall occur here also. On the 

 other hand, it seems equally probable, as in the case of Chapelball, that the 

 deposit owes its present position to transport by land ice. 



The district is one of intense glaciation, and all around it there is evidence of 

 this particular effect, viz., the transport inland of materials from tlie sea by laud 

 ice, e.g., Caithness, along the eastern coast of Aberdeenshire, and near Elgin. In 

 the neighbourhood of Clava there is every proof that the ice issuing from the 

 Great Glen curved gradually round to the eastward, assuming at length, near 

 Forres, an almost due west to east direction. The cause of this was doubtless the 

 ice-blocked condition of the Moray Firth from the numerous great ice-streams 

 pressing into it from the west. There is every likelihood, or rather certainty, that 

 the ice would pass over part of the sea-bed before reaching Clava, and in that case 

 it may have transported shells or shelly clay along with it, as in many other 

 instances. Here, also, to settle the point further examination is desirable. 



I 



6. On some Calcareous Tujas in Norway. 

 By Professor Axel Blytt, of Christiania. 



In the valley of the Gudbrandsdal, in the central part of Norway (lat. 61' oO' 

 to 62°), there are found some calcareous tufas which will now be described. 



In the upper part of this valley, not far from the Dovrefjeld, at the farm of 

 Leine, in the district Nordre Froen, 500 metres above the sea-level, the following 

 series of strata was found in descending order : — 



7. Vegetable earth, 0-10-015 m. 



6. Greyish-white hard tufa with Pinus silvestris, 0'58-0'68 m. 



5. Greenish-grey clay without fossils, 0'04 m. 



4. Yellowish-grey, partly sandy tufa with Pinii^ silcestris, Dri/as octopetala, 



&c., 003 m. 

 3. Yellowish- grey, hard, and slaty tufa with Betula odorata, Sec. (but 



neither Pinus nor Drt/as), 0*45 m. 

 2. Ferruginous clay without fossils, 0'03 m. 

 1. Boulder clay (glacial). 



At the present time the springs which deposited the tufa have almost disap- 

 peared, and the tufa deposition has ceased. At the time when the tufas were 

 formed the rainfall must have been much more considerable than it is now, and 

 the springs much more numerous, for at the uppermost spring, which now is 



