450 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [June 18, 



10. On a Section at Jfnction-Koad, Leith. 



Bj "William Caruuthees, Esq., E.L.S. 

 (Communicated by S. P. Woodward, Esq., F.G-.S.) 

 The investigation of changes in the earth's surface which have been 

 ejffected since its occupation by man, or within the historic period, 

 deservedly receives a large amount of attention in the present day. 

 Any facts which will enable us to form an estimate of the time in 

 which geological changes are produced are of the utmost value to 

 science. Hence the importance of Mr. Leonard Horner's investiga- 

 tions in the Delta of the Nile, Mr. Geikie's observations on the coast 

 of the Eorth, and similar recent contributions, if based on certain 

 and incontrovertible data, can scarcely be over-estimated. But 

 while the multiplication of such observations is desirable, the elimi- 

 nation of erroneous data forming the bases of important deductions 

 is no less so. And if the pottery raised from such a depth in the 

 Nile sediment as to convince Mr. Homer that it was deposited there 

 14,000 years ago be Eoman pottery, or if the Eoman pottery of Mr. 

 Geikie's Forth section be of modern manufacture, it is of as much, if 

 not of more value to science, that such received errors be corrected, 

 than that new truths be added. 



In August last year I read Mr. Geikie's paper, " On a Eise of the 

 Coast of the Prith of Forth*." Being in Edinburgh at the time, 

 I visited the section which formed the basis of his hypothesis. With 

 his sketch in my hand, I had no difficulty in recognizing the various 

 beds he describes in his paper. But the story that the section pre- 

 sented to me was very different from Mr. Geikie's reading of it. The 

 republication of his views during the past year, in popular Journals 

 as well as before this Society f, has induced me to submit to you the 

 grounds upon which I differ from him. I shall use Mr. Geikie's 

 section, copied in fig. 1, and alongside of it a copy of the section 



Fig. 1. — Section at Junction- Road, Leith. After Geikie. 



jds.^^^^ 



,.>,v-"j-''j.'b ^.-i'^ :;^^^^''i'','='^r:=^— Tr<^ 7. Sand and shingle with shells. 

 i.^i.MLi^'^^ - -^'^-- '\ '^J^K^h.'^'Ji^^r-^^i^- 6. Brown sand, passing down- 

 " ^ ' ■ ~ -== ' ■- - --'■•" wards into 



5. Dark silt or sandy clay, with 

 Oyster-shells, bones, pot- 

 tery, fee. : 6 feet. 



-- 2. WTiite sand, false-bedded : 6 feet. 



1. Grravel or shingle. 



h. Made earth. 



from my note-book, made on the spot, together with a section 

 (fig. 2) of the same beds made carefully by a friend somewhat later, 



* Edinb. New Phil, Journ., New Series, vol. xiv. p. 107. 



t See the Memoir printed in the Augast number of this Journal, p. 218, &c. 



