﻿parti] FO S SI LIFEROTTS LIMESTONE FROM THE NORTH SEA. 7 



2. On a Fossiliferous Limestone from the North Sea. 1 By 

 Richard Bulled Newton, F.G.S. (Read June 23rd, 

 1915.) 



[Plate II.] 



Through the good services of Mr. R. W. Thomson, of the Fishery 

 Office, Aberdeen, the British Museum has been placed in possession 

 of two blocks of limestone, one of considerable size, crowded with 

 the remains of marine shells, which had been obtained from the 

 bed of the North Sea by the steam-trawler, the ' Procyon,' com- 

 manded by Captain Wood, some 80 miles east of Orkney or 

 100 miles north-east | north of Buchan Ness. 



In order to acquire further information as to this unique occur- 

 rence, I communicated with Dr. A. W. Gibb, the Curator of the 

 Geological Museum of Marischal College, Aberdeen, who kindly 

 sent me some interesting particulars on the subject. He was 

 familiar with the rock, having had a sample forwarded to him by 

 Dr. Bowman, the scientific investigator on the North Sea Fisheries' 

 boat, the 'Goldseeker,' who from considerable experience had gained 

 some knowledge of the physical characters of the floor of the 

 North Sea. Dr. Bowman informed Dr. Gibb 



' that at the spot where it [the limestone] occurs, there is what seems to be 

 a gorge or submerged channel of some kind, with much deeper water than 

 in the adjoining sea, and he thinks that there is a considerable mass of the 

 rock in all probability [in situ?'], as trawlers report that they frequently 

 break their gear upon it.' 



Although found beneath the sea, this limestone nowhere displays 

 any unusual abrasion, its aspect being entirely that of a rock which 

 might have been obtained from an ordinary quarry or land exposure. 

 There is nothing in its appearance to suggest transportation by 

 glacial agencies, and it can only be surmised that deep down in 

 the North Sea a considerable development of the rock may actually 

 occur in situ. So far as can be ascertained at present, no similar 

 limestone is known in either England or Scotland. The so-called 

 ' Crag Strata ' of Aberdeenshire, described by Jamieson as occur- 

 ring beneath the Boulder Clay and consisting of stratified sand and 

 gravel, have yielded marine mollusca of a northern type, mixed 

 with a few Red Crag species, which Searles Wood regarded as of 

 Red Crag age 2 ; although, according to Clement Reicl, 3 such beds 

 resemble the ' Bridlington Crag ' deposits of Yorkshire, and would 

 therefore be of Pleistocene horizon. Mr. Reid further stated 

 that there is no Pliocene in Scotland, the Red Crag shells of 

 the glacial beds of Aberdeenshire having been probably derived 

 from strata of that age lying beneath the North Sea. A very 



1 Commtinicated by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum. 



2 Q. J.G.S. vol. xvi (1860) p. 373. 



3 ' The Pliocene Deposits of Britain ' Mem. Geol. Surv. 1890, p. 208. 



