'214 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 25, 



whose position and character were unnoticed by an observer. And 

 since in two of the most celebrated Scottish cases which are on 

 record the remains found were those of Elephants, and siace in 

 England such remains are abundant in beds lower than the Boulder- 

 clay, though occurring also in beds above it, the idea naturally 

 occurred that the remains in question might really be older than the 

 Boulder- clay. On these grounds I determined to investigate one of 

 the most celebrated cases for myself, in order to come to some definite 

 conclusion — to replace hypothesis by fact, and so help towards the 

 completion of an important classification. I was not proceeding upon 

 the grounds of a preconceived theory that it is impossible there can 

 be fossils in the Boulder-clay ; for although I regard it as certainly 

 a land-formation, yet as it once formed a sea-bottom, marine fossils 

 may have been swept over it, and imbedded in its upper sui'face, 

 while a rare combination of circumstances might place land-Mam- 

 malia in an ice-deposit formed on land. 



The case above referred to as celebrated was the discovery of 

 Elephant-remains and marine shells at "Woodhill quarry, situated at 

 equal distances from Kilmarnock and Kilmaurs in the county of Ayr. 

 The first discovery was made in the last week of December 1816 ; 

 but remains were again found in 1825 and 1831*. Dr. Scouler, an 

 authority in every way competent, has determined that the Elephant- 

 remains are those of the Mammoth {Elephas primigeniiis). An ac- 

 count of the discovery was laid before the "VYernerian Society by 

 Mr. Robert Bald, the celebrated engineer t; but his account wants 

 precision, as he never visited the spot. Inferentially, for reasons 

 which do not appear, he places the tusks in the " new Alluvial 

 cover" — what we should now caU the "Upper Drifts," — his "old 

 Alluvial cover" being our " true old Boulder-clay." All the writers, 

 however, who have referred to the case, have simply adopted the 

 view first made public, on the authority of Dr. Scouler, by Mr. Smith, 

 of JordanhillJ. He informs us that Dr. Scouler and Dr. W. Couper, 

 Professor of Mineralogy, Glasgow University, visited the place to- 

 gether, and assured him that the bed in which the remains were 

 found was the true Boulder-clay — that is, the lower TiU, Mr. Geikie 

 states that Dr. Scouler informed him that " previous to his visit the 

 remains of four Elephants and a half, in the shape of nine tusks, had 

 been obtained ;" and that "he had picked up from the clay-heaps a 

 small fragment of a molar "§. Dr. Scouler tells me that this visit 

 was paid in 1840, and that the molar found by him was in the " cast 

 stuff " in front of the quariy — a much more precise statement than 

 " clay -heaps," and very important, as in this "cast stufi"" aU the 

 matters above the sandstone rock, and also sandstone fragments, 



* Edinb. Phil. Journ. vol. xiii. p. 181. 



t Wern. Mem. iv. p. 58, 1817. In vol. ii. p. 662, and iii. p. 525, under the 

 head of " History of the Society," there are notices that communications regarding 

 the bones, by Mr. M'Kenzie, of Irvine, and Mr. Hood, Surgeon, Kilmarnock, 

 were read by the Secretary. 



X Trans. Wern. Soc. Apr. 21, 1838, vol. viii. p. 53. (See also Smith's ' Newer 

 Pliocene Geology,' p. 10. Glasgow, 1862.) 



§ Glacial Drift of Scotland, p. 69. Glasgow, 1863. 



