/ 
Tertiary Gravels in Aberdeenshire. Zo 
they are completely altered to a white mass resembling chalk in 
appearance. These changes indicate long continued weathering 
in situ, probably by percolating water. 
The matrix of the pebble bed varies somewhat in composition 
and abundance, but is on the whole remarkably uniform. It may 
be described as a sandy clay always containing quartz grains, but, 
when wet, distinctly plastic and tough. There is little evidence of 
stratification in this pit, though the pebbles are not quite evenly 
distributed in the different layers; no proper bedding or current 
bedding can usually be seen, but streaks occur, often several feet 
in length, in which the sandy, clayey matrix is more than usually 
abundant. Such bedding as can be detected or suspected is 
horizontal. In the floor of the pit a small excavation had been made 
which we were informed was for the purpose of working a clayey 
stratum; this clay is found especially suitable for patching drains. 
The working faces of the Delgaty Pit show very clearly that 
the pebble bed is covered by boulder-clay. This forms a layer, 
about 2 feet thick, of tough brownish sandy clay, with pebbles of 
many local rocks and some far-travelled stones derived from districts 
to the north-west. In the boulder-clay there are also some pebbles 
of quartzite from the gravel below, and these increase in numbers 
in the deeper parts of the boulder-clay. The base of the glacial 
deposit is fairly well marked by the change of colour. No disturbance 
of the gravels immediately beneath the boulder-clay is to be seen. 
In Lower Banffshire and neighbouring parts of Aberdeenshire we 
have found that the south-easterly drift is the earliest of which 
traces have been preserved. 
In the wood, to the south-west of the gravel-pit, there is an 
old adit or tunnel in the Delgaty gravel, which had been formerly 
worked for a fine white, sharp sand, which, we are told, was used 
for scouring kitchen tables. The roof of this adit is formed by 
stiff brownish boulder-clay, held together by tree roots. 
The real base of the Delgaty deposit is not exposed, and the 
deposit parts now being worked are quite as free from local rocks 
as any other part of the pebble bed. 
THE WINDYHILLS OUTLIER. 
This outlier is situated about 2 miles N.E. of Fyvie Church at 
the top of a low ridge at an elevation of about 400 feet. Perhaps 
half of the ridge is slightly over the 400 feet contour; the height 
of the margin of the deposits is not less than 360-370 feet. The 
underlying rocks are slate and knotted rocks of the Macduff and 
Fyvie groups of the N.E. Scottish metamorphic rocks; these 
contain bands of dark, impure, pebbly grit and quartzites in many 
places. The area covered by the pebble beds is about a mile and a 
half long in an E.N.E.—W.S.W. direction, and nearly half a mile 
in breadth. Heather and wood cover most of the ground, and 
cultivation stops practically at the margin of the gravels, but a 
