1865.] JAMIESON LAST CHANGES IN SCOILAND. 177 



sionally exhibits black stains, as if from the decay of sea-weed that 

 had been attached to the stone. I likewise noticed the Littorina 

 litorea close beside a large boulder, as if it had been sticking to the 

 stone like the Balani, and had gone down with it. 



These heavy boulders in the middle of this deep mass of fine 

 marine clay, far from any high ground whence they could have 

 rolled down, aiford the best evidence I have seen of the action 

 of floating ice during the glacial period ; for by what other means can 

 we suppose that stones of such weight could have been lodged here 

 and there in the midst of a bed of the finest sediment, having all the 

 appearance of a tranquO. deposit. The large shells of the Cyprina 

 Islandica are very numerous and perfectly entire, and lie gaping 

 half open and filled with fine mud. Even the most delicate bivalves, 

 such as the Nucula tenuis and Ledapygmcea, occur entire, with the epi- 

 dermis quite unruffled ; and it is just alongside of such as these that 

 we see now and then a boulder of some 2 or 3 feet in diameter. It 

 was under the friendly guidance of Mr. Smith, of Jordan Hill, that in 

 1860 I made my first acquaintance with these Paisley beds, and he 

 particularly drew my attention to the evidence of tranquillity, and of 

 the long-continued presence of the sea, afi'orded by the growth of 

 Balani on the upper surface of the stones. 



d. Stratified Beds at high levels. — Beds of stratified clay and 

 earthy matter may sometimes be observed at high levels. I have 

 myself described a remarkable instance of such near Pitlochrie in 

 Perthshire, where a thick bed of stratified debris stretches up to a 

 height of 1200 feet above the sea. Although some of these may 

 be marine, yet in the total absence of fossils I think it unsafe to 

 rely upon any of those hitherto adduced as evidences of submer- 

 gence, owing to the fact that similar stratified beds are frequently 

 found in alpine districts that have been occupied by glaciers, as we 

 know from the accounts of the Upper Himalayan valleys by Dr. 

 Thomson and Dr. Hooker. Charpentier also mentions their occur- 

 rence in Switzerland, and describes how they may have been formed. 

 Moraine-matter is occasionally deposited in singular situations in this 

 way when it falls into a lake or pool confined by the ice. 



Although, therefore, we have evidence from marine shells of sub- 

 mergence in Scotland up to 500 feet above the present sea-level, we 

 are still in the dark as to the exact upper limit of this submergence. 

 The marine beds are so very barren of fossils, at least on the eastern 

 side of Scotland, that their occurrence is the rare exception, and 

 their absence the rule ; we are therefore not entitled to say that the 

 submergence reached no higher than 500 feet, merely because ma- 

 rine fossils have not been discovered at greater heights. There are 

 many places, even in the lower grounds, where the character of the 

 superficial debris is such that it is doubtful whether it should be re- 

 ferred to submarine or supra-marine action, the true marine clay of 

 this period being occasionally so charged with stones as to resemble 

 some of the softer varieties of glacier-mud ; and at high levels this is 

 more generally the case. If it be also the fact, as I have already 

 hinted, that the marine beds have been deranged, and sometimes 



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