1866.] JAMIESON CAITHNESS. 261 



dredging nearer the shore, and from this I inferred that the fossili- 

 ferous bed, which seems to stretch along the coast at a distance of 

 from six to fifteen miles, does not extend beyond this deep water to 

 the " Long Forties." On examination of the materials brought up by 

 the dredge from the top of the bank, there were found shells of the 

 following species in a worn and semi-fossil condition, namely : — 



Purpura lapillus, one specimen. 

 Litorina rudis, one specimen. 

 Solen siliqua, two specimens. 



Mytilus edulis, one large broken valve and several fragments of 

 smaller specimens. 



Before it occurred to me that these fragmentary fossils might be 

 interesting in a geological point of view, the greater part of the 

 dredgings had been examined. It is quite possible, therefore, that 

 other specimens may have escaped notice. 



Now as Litorina rudis is generally found on rocks above high-water 

 mark, and never beyond low-water, and as all the other species are 

 highly characteristic of the shore, or very shallow water, it seems a 

 fair conclusion that at the period when these were living, the relative 

 levels of land and sea were very different from what they now are, 

 and that the bank had then formed the shore of the German Ocean. 

 If only one specimen had been found it might have been accounted 

 for by some of the many accidents which occasionally bring even a 

 foreign shell into the dredger's bag ; but four species having been 

 found in the course of one day's dredging, it appears very probable 

 that they lived and died where they were found. 



On the Glacial phenomena of Caithness. 

 By T. F. Jamieson, F.G.S. 



Contents. 



1. Introduction. 



2. General distribution of the Drift, 



its colour, texture, and contents. 



3. Character of the Stones imbedded 



in the Drift. 



4. State of the SheUs. 



6. The Glaciation of the Eocks and 

 Boulders, 



6. Absence of Moraines and Gravel- 

 hillocks. 



7. Eelation of the Caithness Drift to 



that of the rest of Scotland. 



8. Its place in the history of the 



Glacial period; reference to 

 sections at Invernettie, King- 

 Edward, and Arran. 



9. The Post-glacial period in Caith- . 



ness. 

 10. Appendix, with two tables con- 

 taining lists of shells, &c. 



1. Introduction. — In August 1865 I paid a visit to Caithness, in 

 order to study the last geological changes in that north-eastern 

 corner of Scotland. Mr. Peach has lately given us an excellent 

 account of the fossil-contents of its glacial beds, from which he 

 enumerates seventy-five species of MoUusca, besides various other 

 forms of Inrertebrata. The object, however, of my visit was not so 

 much to look after the fossils as to szitisfy myself about the conditions 



