Cretaceous Fossils found in Aberdeenshire. 25 



with a soapy feel, in whicb. sandstone fragments, raucli worn, 

 were found. This black clay stopped at 11 feet. At 14 feet it 

 began to appear again, and to take the place of the yellowish- 

 brown clay, which ended at 16 feet. The lower part of it 

 contained many stones. From this level the black clay continued 

 all the way down to 30 feet, where it was succeeded by red 

 laminated clay, without stones of any kind. The black clay con- 

 tained large stones of granite and quartzite and small fragments 

 of the glauconitic sandstone all the way, but the stones grew fewer 

 in number the deeper the shaft was sunk, and the sandstone 

 fragments had almost ceased at 27 feet. The excavation could 

 not be carried farther than 30 feet, because, on reaching the red 

 laminated clay, water began to come in and the funds were 

 exhausted. 



The Committee regret that they were unable to ascertain the 

 nature of the solid rock under the shaft. Most likely it would 

 have been found to be granite, the rock seen at the sea-coast 

 from Cruden Bay to Peterhead. The shaft was evidently in glacial 

 drift cla}"^ all the way, and therefore the sandstone fragments were 

 not in situ, but had been transported, apparently from the north. 

 By a series of pits a few feet deep made in this direction it might be 

 possible to follow the sandstone farther up the hill, and a shaft sunk 

 at the uppermost place where they could be found might discover 

 the bed from which they came ; yet the Committee cannot venture 

 to express a confident opinion that another excavation would be 

 more successful than the last in finding the origin of the Glauconitic 

 Sandstone. Many appearances indicate that the latest changes 

 on the surface of the ground in the district in which Moreseat 

 is situated were caused by local glacial sheets, perhaps not on 

 a great scale, yet capable of moving great quantities of loose and 

 soft matter. The white sand in the shaft seemed to have been 

 moved bodily from a bed seen to the north-west at a higher level. 

 The original seat of the Glauconitic Sandstone may have been to 

 the north of the shaft, a little farther up the hill, and yet the 

 bed may have been entirely removed by ice descending the hill. 

 If, however, the British Association renew the grant, the Committee 

 will be happy to make another attempt to find the origin of the 

 Moreseat fossils. 



Mr. Tocher, F.I.C., analyzed the clays found in the shaft, and 

 ascertained that the reddish colour of the one was due to ferric 

 oxide of iron, and the black colour of the other to ferrous oxide. 



Mr. Insch collected a large quantity of sandstone fragments 

 containing fossils. These were examined by Mr. A. J. Jukes- 

 Browne, and will ultimately be deposited either in the Aberdeen 

 University Museum or in that at Peterhead. 



2. Report on the Fossils by A. J. Jukes-Browne, B.A., F.G.S. 



The existence of Cretaceous fossils, embedded in a kind of 

 '•■ Greensand," and found at Moreseat, near Aberdeen, has been 

 known to geologists for nearly fifty years. Mr. W. Ferguson 



