TRANSACTIONS OP THE SECTIONS. 109 



The author adverted to another formation conspicuous in the northern and 

 eastern regions of Northumberland — namely the Boulder-clay. This formation 

 is largely developed on the eastern side of that range of sandstone hills which 

 extends in a south-westerly direction from Kyloe to Alnwick Moor. In some 

 places the boulder clay constitutes long hills with steep ascents, and isolated 

 mounds which rise sometimes to a height of 25 feet and resemble ancient tumuli. 

 There are, moreover, hills and ridges of diluvial gravel, clay, and pebbles, which 

 bear a strong resemblance to lateral moraines, and may be attributable to the glaciers 

 of a former age. A tortuous ridge of hills at North Charlton, between Alnwick 

 and Belford, certainly resembles a lateral moraine ; and similar mounds are traced 

 over a considerable portion of the district into which the eastern valleys of the 

 Cheviots descend. The boulders and fragments of Scottish mountains which are 

 found in this boulder-clay formation, and which strew the beds of rivers in North- 

 umberland, and indeed the face of the country, cannot, however, be conceived 

 to have been transported by any other agency than that of ice. It seems not at 

 all improbable that the ponderous and far-travelled blocks were borne by icebergs 

 to the places where they rest, at a time when the climate of Northumberland was 

 of an arctic character, and when its elevated regions alone stood above the sea. 

 It seems worthy of remark, that beneath an overlying boulder-clay in the Hawk- 

 hill quarry above referred to, the limestone bed in situ is scratched and grooved, and 

 in some places polished, the markings having a general direction from north to 

 south. 



The author referred in conclusion to the contributions made by Mr. Tate to our 

 knowledge of the Basalt and the Basaltic dykes of Northumberland, and to the 

 questions raised by those formations. 



On Sections along the Southern Flanks of the Grampians. 

 By Professor Harkness, F.E.S., F.G.S. 



The rocky masses which have been exposed, by the action of the German Ocean, 

 in the neighbourhood of Stonehaven, afford a considerable insight into the structure 

 of the southern flanks of the Grampians. Here we have, in the neighbourhood of 

 Dimotter Castle, the conglomeratic portion of the middle member of the Old Red 

 Sandstone formation well exhibited, and possessing a S.S.E. dip at an angle of about 

 80°. Beneath this conglomerate, immediately south of Stonehaven, the Forfar- 

 shire flags occur, having the same inclination, and marked by the grey colour which 

 they usually manifest when worked for commercial purposes. These Forfarshire 

 flags occupy the coast northward to Garron Point ; but as they leave the old red 

 conglomerates, they lose their ordinary grey colour ; and near their base, as here 

 exposed, they assume a purple aspect. 



At Garron Point they come abruptly in contact with the metamorphic rocks 

 which constitute the great mass of the Grampian range. There is, however, a 

 total discordance in the arrangement of these two series of rocks ; for while the 

 Old Red Sandstone formation dips S.S.E. at a high angle, the metamorphic rocks 

 are inclined N.N.W. at about 70°. This mode of relative arrangement Professor 

 Harkness has found to prevail in all the sections of the interior over two-thirds of 

 the flanks of the Grampians. In many instances, however, thick masses of trap 

 intervene, separating the Old Red Sandstone on the S.E. from the metamorphic 

 rocks on the N.W. As regards the association of the metamorphic rocks in this 

 area, the lower portions consist of clay-slate, to which succeeds mica-schist overlaid 

 by gneiss, an arrangement similar to that shown in the section attached to Professor 

 Nicol's map, and leading to the inference that in this portion of the Grampians 

 the clay-slate is the oldest rock of the inetaniorphic series. 



On the Yellow Sandstones of Elgin and Lossiemouth. 

 By Professor Harkness, F.R.S., JF.G.S. 



The strata which lie north of the town of Elgin, and which have been described 

 by Sir Roderick Murchison in the Quarterly Journal of the Geol. Soc. vol. xv., 

 consist for the most part of yellow sandstones capped with limestone, These, at 



