1858.] JAMIESON PLEISTOCENE, ABERDEENSHIRE. ,509 



2. On Fossil Shells and Striated Boulders at High Levels 

 in Scotland. By Thomas F. Jamieson, Esq. In Letters 

 addressed to Sir R. I. Murchison, V.P.G.S., &c. 



[As the notices read before the Meeting from these letters are fully detailed by 

 Mr. Jamieson in a Paper received shortly afterwards, the latter is here printed in 

 full.] 



On the Pleistocene Deposits of Aberdeenshire. By T. F. 

 Jamieson, Esq. Communicated by James Smith, Esq., F.G.S. 



In the lower districts of Aberdeenshire, all along the coast, we find 

 the rocks almost entirely hidden by a clothing of superficial matter, 

 varying in quality from fine clay to stony earth, loose shingly gravel, 

 and sand. In some places this covering is of great depth, exceed- 

 ing even 100 feet in thickness, and is most developed in wide basin- 

 shaped tracts, where the rock sits low. Much of it seems to have 

 been gradually accumulated under the waters of a former sea, and, 

 when now exposed to the light of day, presents a series of stratified 

 layers of silt, sand, and clay, occasionally disposed in laminae as thin 

 as paper. 



A careful search now and then discloses traces of marine shells 

 scantily dispersed, either in the shape of broken fragments or, more 

 rarely, in a perfect condition — bivalves entire and shut, with the 

 delicate skin or epidermis in complete preservation, apparently in 

 the spot where the animals had lived and died. In other places, 

 however, we find large boulders, and blocks sometimes of gigantic 

 size, together with deposits the character of which cannot be accounted 

 for by the causes at present operating on our coast. 



Commencing at the southern boundary of the shire, I shall proceed 

 north, sketching the features of the coast as I go along. 



At the mouth of the River Dee the denuded remains of these beds 

 are found on both sides of the stream ; and at the Torry brickwork 

 on the southern side, the succession of strata is as follows : — 



1 . Shingle, or coarse water-worn gravel, irregularly 



bedded 7 feet. 



2. Finely-laminated clay, varying in colour from 



yellowish-brown to red and bluish-grey. Con- 

 tains some thin seams of fine sand 22 feet. 



3. Gravel ; depth unascertained. 



No organic remains appear to have been got in this excavation, 

 the base of which is probably rather below the present sea-level. At 

 the bottom of the uppermost gravel-bed, and resting between it and 

 the subjacent clay, I saw an angular boulder of quartzose gneiss, be- 

 tween two and three feet in length. None were seen by me in the clay 

 itself; but the manager of the work told me that they are occasionally 

 found in all the beds. I suspect they must be of small size, for I 

 saw no large blocks lying about the place. 



At another brickwork, on the opposite side of the river, the series 

 of beds, commencing also at the surface, is — 



2 l2 



