Geological Society of London. 169 



W. Smyth, Esq., M.A., F.E.S., President, in the chair.— The fol- 

 lowing communications were read : — 



1. " On ancient sea-marks on the coast of Sweden." By the Et. 

 Hon. the Earl of Selkirk, F.E.S., F.G.S. 



This paper contained a detailed description of some observations 

 made in the month of July, 1866, upon certain marks placed so as 

 to show the level of the sea on the coast of Sweden, (seen by 

 Sir Charles Lyell thirty-two years ago,) and which were supposed 

 to indicate a gradual and equable rise of the land of about three 

 feet in a century. Two of these marks were, off the harbour of 

 Gefle, and one on the Island of Graso, off Oregrund, on the east 

 coast of Sweden ; the rest were on the west coast, a little to the 

 north of Goteberg. 



The conclusion arrived at was that these marks do not afford any 

 very certain proof of such rise of the land ; the fluctuation of the 

 level of the water being so great that any difference of the level of 

 the land in thirty-two years is lost in comparison with the daily and 

 weekly changes, owing to shifts of wind and other causes affecting 

 the water, not the land. The marks off Gefle gave most indication 

 of a change of level ; but there were various elements of uncertainty 

 connected with them. 



2. "On a Post-Tertiary Lignite, or Peat-Bed, in the district of 

 Kintyre, Argyllshire." By His Grace the Duke of Argyll, K.T., 

 D.C.L., P.E.S., F.G.S. 



A section of the bed appeared in a bank cut through by a small 

 stream near the village of Southend. The bank appears to belong 

 to the " Old Coast Line," which is so well-marked a feature around 

 most parts of the west coast of Scotland. The Peat at the point 

 described is 3 feet 9 inches thick ; above it is a bed of fine clay, 

 from 13 to 14 inches thick, containing hazel-nuts, followed by a bed 

 of fine yellow sand 4 feet thick, which is succeeded by a bed of 

 coarse gravel, with small boulders of the thickness of 14 feet. 



About 400 yards further up the stream there is a bed of fine 

 black-blue clay with Mussel-shells. 



These beds appear to furnish evidence of some five or six different 

 changes of level. (1) The Peat-bed has been depressed under shal- 

 low and very muddy water, depositing the bed of fine clay ; (2) a 

 further depression has subjected this mud to an inroad of the sea, 

 bringing with it the sand which overlies the clay ; (3) a further 

 depression, or possibly a partial elevation, exposing the same surface 

 to some strong current or littoral action, has brought down upon it 

 the bed of coarse gravel ; (4) all these beds have been consolidated 

 and re-elevated above the sea ; (5) another depression has enabled 

 the sea to erode the valley of which the " Old Coast Line " forms 

 the boundary, and in which this section is exposed. A long period 

 seems to have followed, during which this Old Coast Line formed 

 the Coast of Scotland, and during that period the upper Mussel-bed 

 seems to have been deposited ; (6) a final elevation of the land has 

 determined the present coast-line, and left the old one as it now 

 appears — subsequently modified by atmospheric action, and cut 



