180 



pureus, Sigaretus concavus, with other shells, in great abundance, 

 and retaining their colour almost as freshly as those living in the ad- 

 jacent sea. Mr. Freyer states that he did not visit Conception, but 

 that he had seen cargoes of the lime made from the shells fo'und at 

 great heights in its neighbourhood. 



With respect to Valparaiso he regrets he did not more attentively 

 examine the neighbourhood ; but he says, that to the east of the 

 town the shelly beach is now far above the reach of the tides, and 

 that rocks were pointed out to him which he was assured were under 

 water previously to the earthquake of 1822. 



March 11. — Richard Atkinson, Esq., M. A., of Trinity College, Cam- 

 bridge, and Old Square, Lincoln's Inn ; and the Rev. Ralph Lyon, 

 M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Sherborne, Dorsetshire; 

 were elected Fellows of this Society. 



A paper was first read, entitled " Description of a Bed of recent 

 Marine Shells near Elie, on the Southern Coast of Fifeshire ; " by 

 William John Hamilton, Esq,, Sec. G.8. 



The author commences his memoir by describing the geological struc- 

 ture of the neighbourhood of Elie, a small fishing-town about eighteen 

 miles north-east from Edinburgh. The promontories which form the 

 two extremities of the bay of Elie, consist of amygdaloid and basalt, 

 the latter exhibiting sometimes a columnar structure. Between these 

 headlands the beach is low, and composed of alternating, thin beds of 

 sandstone and shale, with occasionally seams of coal and strata of 

 limestone, the whole belonging to a carboniferous system, and in- 

 clined at high angles in different directions, and without any regu- 

 larity. Basalt occurs in numerous places, extending in long reefs 

 far into the sea ; the beds of sandstone and shale dipping from them 

 on both sides : but at one point in the western part of the bay the 

 strata are said to dip under the basalt. 



About two miles to the eastward of Elie is a small promontorj'-, 

 near the extremity of which is situated the bed of marine shells. The 

 extent of the deposit across the promontory does not exceed eighty 

 yards ; but its range inland could not be ascertained. The bed rests 

 unconformably upon strata of sandstone and shale containing masses 

 of ironstone, and consists principally of coarse sand, with rounded 

 fragments of the sandstone and ironstone. The shells are sometimes 

 imbedded in clay, but are more frequently scattered irregularly through 

 the deposit, and belong, without exception, to existing species. The 

 point at wliich they were first noticed, is about five feet above high- 

 water mark, and the shells were very much broken. As the bed gra- 

 dually rose towards the north-east, they were more numerous, and 

 better preserved ; the greatest height at which they were noticed, by 

 the author, being twelve or fourteen feet above the level of high tide, 

 and on the east side of the promontory. The deposit passes upwards 

 into fine sand and comminuted shells. The strata, on the basset 

 edges of which the shelly bed rests, Mr. Hamilton conceives were 

 thrown into their highly inclined position by the agency of the neigh- 

 bouring trap, and before the accumulation of the gravel and sand; 



