TRANSACTIONS OF THE 8ECTION8. 101 



•within the last month or two, some bones of a large ruminant, believed to be of 

 the Megaceros, or Irish elk. About thirty years since, the late Dr. Buckland dis- 

 covered the bones of a mammoth in this locality ; and about the same time the 

 late Mr. Gibson obtained the beautiful collection of bones now in the Royal 

 College of Surgeons. Associated_with the remains of those giants of ancient days, 

 are the shells of Planorbis, Unto, Cyclas, Pahidina, &c.: and there are now living 

 in the Roden, and other tributary brooks in the neighbourhood, the lineal descend- 

 ants of these fossils, the ancestors of which enjoyed the same sunshine as the 

 mammoth and rhinoceros, the aristocracy of those days. Thus we have amongst 

 ns, living on the same estate as their ancestors, the humble Paludina, Planorbis, 

 &c, forming, as it were, the link between the past and the present order of things. 



On a Horseshoe Nail found in the Red Sandstone of Kingoodie. 

 By Sir D. Brewster, K.H., LL.D., F.R.S. 



On the Geology of Lower Egypt. By G. Buist, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S. 



On the Submerged Forests of Caithness. By John Cleghorn, Wick. 



The submerged forests of Caithness are found in the bays of the county into 

 which streams empty themselves. We have them in Lybster Harbour, in Wick 

 Bay, in Sinclair's Bay, and at the mouth of the Thurso. 



These submerged forests are characterized by the vegetation of the districts 

 through which the streams flow. In that at Lybster there are large trees prostrate, 

 and finely comminuted peaty matter. In those at Wick, in the Links in Sinclair's 

 Bay, and at Thurso, I have found no large trees ; only birch twigs and peaty matter. 

 Large trees grow only in the very sheltered districts of the county — in the hollows. 

 The stream at Lybster runs in a deep ravine. 



The trees and peaty matter in the submerged forest at Lybster are found below 

 high-water mark, and, like the specimen exhibited in the section, are stratified. 

 In Reiss Links, Sinclair's Bay, the peaty matter is covered with blown sand which 

 is finely turfed over ; but the small streams there have exposed the peat and made 

 cuttings through it. The peaty stratum is from one to three feet thick, and from 

 eight to ten feet above high- water mark. Similar peaty matter is frequently taken 

 up on the flukes of their anchors by vessels in the bay. I infer that in favourable 

 localities the peaty matter is continuous from the Links to the anchor ground. 



The specimens exhibited are characteristic of our submerged forests generally, 

 and their striking feature is their stratification, or rather lamination, they being in 

 this respect wholly different from the living mosses of the county. 



There is another feature of the peaty deposit in the Links to which I beg to call 

 attention. Near the Castle of Ackergill, at the east end of the peaty stratum, we 

 find it to be the impalpable matter of peat, and when dried and broken the fracture 

 is lustrous and conchoidal ; but further west we find the stratum to be twigs and 

 the rougher matter of peat-bogs, very regularly and finely laminated. 



This peat-bed then must have been laid down in deep water ; and I infer that it 

 must have been deposited in the deep water of the bay, from the circumstance that 

 it is arranged along shore in the order in which the sand and gravel are arranged 

 along the shores of the bay. Mr. Coode mentions that a crew landing on the 

 Chessel Bank in a dark night can tell their position on the bank by the size of the 

 pebbles around them; but it is true, not of the Chessel Bank only, but of 

 all bays, of all firths, and of all seas, that the debris is laid along shore in a de- 

 terminate order, which order is due to the regularity of the winds, and conse- 

 quently of the currents. In Sinclair's Bay there is a sandy district, a gravely 

 district, and a district of boulders ; and in each of these districts there is a sub- 

 arrangement determined by the weight in the materials. In the sandy district 

 we have a siliceous region, and a region of shell-sand. Thus we see that the 

 peaty matter here did not grow where it is now found. How then comes it 

 to be in the Links ? The sea is receding. This is proved by our river banks 

 standing at a higher angle at the estuaries than further inland; the denuding 



