24 Messrs. Jukes-Browne and Milne — 



in great abundance on the ridge above Moreseat, they become fewer 

 in going down the hillside, and are comparatively scarce at 

 Moreseat, and it may be assumed that none of the flint-fossils 

 in the Ferguson collection were found in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of the Greensand fossils. 



Worh of the Committee. — On being made aware of their appoint- 

 ment the Chairman and the Secretary met on the ground, 

 accompanied by Messrs. Mitchell and Insch. Mr. Johnstone, the 

 proprietor of the farm, kindly consented to allow an excavation 

 to be made. All the places where fossils had been found were 

 examined, and it was resolved to sink a shaft at the highest 

 place where they were certainly known to be, in the belief that 

 the fragments of sandstone had been moved from a higher to 

 a lower level. The place selected is on a knoll north of Moreseat, 

 about 330 feet above the sea-level, and about a quarter of a mile 

 from the place where fossils were found in 1839. The ground 

 to the north is covered with peat-moss overgrown with heather, and 

 nothing can be seen of its character. Half a mile to the north-east 

 there is some cultivated land, and a pit had been sunk by a crofter 

 for a pump in white unstratified siliceous matter, apparently detritus 

 of chalk-flints. To the north-west another pit had been dug. At 

 first glacial drift clay was met with, then fine stratified sand, 

 unsuitable for a pump well, and the excavation was stopped at 

 !I4 feet deep. This hole was 50 feet above the site selected for 

 the shaft. It was thought best to defer the sinking of the 

 shaft till the following summer to avoid risk of obstruction from 

 water, 



Mr. J. T. Tocher, the Secretary of the Buchan Field Club, 

 which is affiliated to the British Association, undertook to contract 

 for the work, and along with Mr. Mitchell to visit it while in 

 progress, and to examine the material excavated. 



The shaft was dug in the summer of 1896, and a depth of 

 30 feet was attained. The first foot consisted of ordinary soil. 

 Below it was found a yellowish-brown sandy clay mixed with small 

 fragments of sandstone and pebbles of quartzite and flint. The 

 sandstone was afterwards found to contain Glauconite, and may 

 be termed Glauconitic Sandstone. Almost every fragment j'ielded 

 fossils, mostly casts of small shells. At 3 feet the clay became 

 finer and the sandstone fragments more abundant. At 4 feet they 

 were in layers among the clay, gradually thinning out and 

 disappearing, as described by Dr. Ferguson. At 5 feet, on the 

 south side of the shaft, a deposit of fine white sand was found, 

 in which were pebbles of granite, quartzite, and flint. In the 

 other part of the shaft the clay continued, with numerous bits 

 of the grey glauconitic sandstone in a layer, much broken, dipping 

 to the south, which is the direction of the slope of the surface of 

 the ground at Moreseat. The mass of sand increased down to 

 8 feet, where it ended. At the bottom of the sand there was 

 a block of granite a foot in diameter, and under it a large flint 

 pebble. At 10 feet there was, on one side, a mass of black clay 



