22 llessrs. JuJces-Brotcne and Milne — 



of 1839-40 that Greensand had been discovered at Moreseat. 

 Dr. Ferguson was a student in this class, and thus had his attention 

 directed to the Moreseat fossils from the first. Hundreds of loads 

 of clay were removed from the excavation, and many fossils were 

 collected; but when the wheel was put in and built up, and the 

 drain was covered up, there remained no trace of the interesting 

 discovery. 



In 1849, on making a deep ditch alongside a road to the north 

 of the farm steading, and a little above the 300-feet level, the same 

 clay, sandstone, and fossils were met with. Dr. Ferguson sent 

 a notice to the Philosophical Society of Glasgow.^ Next year 

 he visited the newly-made ditch, and sent an account of the original 

 discovery and a description of what he saw to the Philosophical 

 Magazine." Dr. Ferguson's description of what he saw is quoted 

 here, because it exactly coincides with what was seen in subsequent 

 excavations. " An excavation about 7 feet in depth was made, 

 and the section presented irregular layers of unctuous clay, of 

 a dark-brown colour and soapy feel, and so tough and adhesive 

 as to render it a work of considerable labour to dig it out. Inter- 

 stratified with this clay were thin layers of a compact sandstone. 

 These layers of sandstone were not continuous ; they graduated 

 into each other, thinned out, disappeared, and reappeared most 

 confusedly. They were very much inclined, dipping towards 

 the south. The whole mass had much the appearance of having 

 been drifted ; although from the nature of the matrix, and the state 

 of preservation in which the shells are found, it does not appear 

 as if it could have been drifted far. The sandstone is tough and 

 soft when newly dug, but hardens on exposure to the air and 

 becomes light-coloured in drying. When wet, it presents a mottled 

 appearance, the colour being greenish ; when dry, this almost 

 disappears." 



In 1856 a collection of fossils from Moreseat made by Dr. 

 Ferguson was examined by Mr. J. W. Salter and Mr. W. H. Baily. 

 An account of them was published next year in the Quarterly 

 Journal of the Society, along with a note by Dr. Ferguson. 

 Mr. Salter regarded the Moreseat fossils as an indication, in the 

 near neighbourhood, of Upper Greensand in situ. Types of these 

 fossils are preserved in the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn 

 Street, London. 



In the memoir descriptive of the sheet of the Geological Survey 

 containing Moreseat, notice is taken of the Greensand fossils found 

 there, and of the Chalk-flint fossils found at Bogingariie, a few 

 miles to the south-west, also described by Mr. Salter ; but the 

 surveyor does not say that he saw at Moreseat any fossils or 

 fragments of Greensand sandstone. 



In 1894 the Secretary of the Committee was lecturing at Cruden 

 on Geology and Agriculture for the Aberdeen County Council, and 

 was induced by the mention of Greensand in the memoir to visit 



1 See Proceedings of the Society, toI. iii, 1849. 

 ^ See vol. xxxvii, 1850. 



