( 108 ) 



NOTICES OF THE NEWER PLIOCENE DEPOSITS 

 IN SCOTLAND AND THE WESTERN ISLANDS. 



Entering Scotland by the well-known locality of Gretna 

 Green, evidences of the former level of the sea are no- 

 ticed in the Statistical Account of the parish of Gretna,* 

 and also in the adjoining parishes of Dornochf and Ruth- 

 well. j Lochar Moss rests upon marine beds. I suspect, 

 however, that part of them has been silted up in modern 

 times, as vessels and anchors have been discovered in 

 them. In the county of Kirkcudbright there are elevated 

 shelly beds, on the east side of St Mary's Isle,§ and in 

 several places the fossil shells are used for manure. || In 

 Wigtonshire there are extensive tracts full of them.^T At 

 Cassincarie, in the parish of Kirkmabreck, there is a bed 

 of littoral shells, at an elevation of 18 feet.** On the 

 west coast of Scotland, these deposits can be observed in 

 Loch Ryan,-f"f- and in the Bay of Ayr. The Rev. Mr 

 Landsborough of Stevenston, in a letter to me, thus no- 

 tices the elevated beds in his parish : — 



" There is a cave at Ardeer-house ; the rocks which 



form the walls are evidently water -worn. This cave is 



near the base of the eastern termination of a ridge, which, 



with some breaks, is continued from this to Largs, which 



I am convinced was once the bounding barrier of the 



sea. Owing to the mining operations that are going on, 



* New Stat. Acct., Dumfries, p. 263. + Stat. Acct., vol. ii. p. 18. 



t New Stat. Acct., Dumfries, p. 220. § Stat. Acct., vol. xi. p. 30. 



|| lb. vol. xv. p. 82. 



If lb. vol. xiv. p. 473, and vol. iv. p. 139. 



** Information from the Rev. Dr Lawrie. 



ft Stat. Acct., vol. ii. p. 48. 



