284 Correspondence — Professor James Qeilde. 



mare's nest. He says that he saw no Boulder-clay resting upon the 

 Arctic-plant beds. I should have been surprised if he had. If, 

 before venturing on his criticism, he had troubled to read my 

 reference to these beds (" Great Ice Age," p. 303) he vs^ould have 

 found that I described them, along with the Corstorphine Arctic- 

 plant beds, as occupying hollows in the surface of the Upper Boulder- 

 olay. They are clearly younger than any Boulder-clay in the Scottish. 

 Lowlands. The inter-Glacial beds, formerly so well exposed under- 

 neath the Upper Boulder-clay in the quarry at Hailes, and described 

 by me in "Prehistoric Europe," p. 256, are no longer visible. If 

 Mr. Reid had asked Mr. Bennie he would have escaped falling into- 

 error, and would have learned that the inter-Glacial peat described 

 by me and the Arctic-plant beds discovered by Mr. Bennie occurred 

 on two separate and distinct horizons. I may add that no material 

 obtained from the Hailes inter-Glacial beds has ever passed into Mr. 

 Eeid's hands. 



3. Redhall Quarry. — This section was described and figured by 

 Mr. John Henderson twenty years ago (Trans. Edin. Geol. Snc, 

 vol. ii, p. 391). Mr. Henderson is a very careful and experienced 

 observer, and knows the geology of the district well, and I have 

 been content to rely upon his evidence. But I may mention that 

 many other members of the Edinburgh Geological Society visited the 

 quan^y when it was first opened, and no one ever doubted that the 

 glacial deposits occupied their original position. I did not myself 

 see the section until long afterwards, by which time it had become 

 more or less obscured, but nothing observed by me tended to throw 

 any doubt upon the accuracy of Mr. Henderson's description. The 

 situation of the quarry was familiar to me before the ground had 

 been broken into for quarrying purposes. It was a slight depression 

 lying between gentle slopes, from which no slips or slides of 

 Boulder-clay could possibly have taken place. Mr. Henderson 

 confirms my recollection of the facts, and informs me that at the 

 time the quarry was opened undisturbed Boulder-cla}' extended 

 continuously over the whole area. It was only when this Boulder- 

 clay had been dug through that the inter-Glacial peat was disclosed. 

 If it were the case that the plants recorded by Mr. Reid as having 

 come from this place and Cowden Glen could not possibly have 

 lived in Scotland during inter- Glacial times, I should be compelled 

 to come to one of two conclusions — either (a) that Mr. Eeid's 

 unconfirmed botanical determiuations are not necessarily infallible, 

 or (6) that he has inadvertently mixed his samples or confused his 

 localities, or both. 



I have not noticed all Mr. Reid's statements and expressions of 

 opinion which lay themselves open to animadversion, but have 

 probably said enough to show that his attempt to discredit observa- 

 tions made by myself and others has not been quite successful. 



EdixNetjrgh, 3r^Jf«i/, 1895. JamesGeikie. 



