1858.] JAMIESON PLEISTOCENE, ABERDEENSHIRE. 523 



As to the composition of these ridges, I have found them to con- 

 sist of sand, gravel, and water-worn pebbles. In some places the 

 mass is very coarse, showing no regular arrangement, but abounding 

 in rolled stones of all sizes up to a diameter of 2\ feet ; few, how- 

 ever, exceed 1 foot in length. In other places the materials are 

 much finer, passing from coarse pebbly gravel into undulating sandy 

 layers. Broken shells occur in both sorts. The pebbles are of 

 many different kinds ; the most abundant seems to be micaceous 

 schist, similar in character to what occurs along the adjoining coast, 

 while gneiss, quartzose schist, granite, and greenstone are also plen- 

 tiful. A bit of felspar and a flint or two may be occasionally found ; 

 and upon one occasion I picked up two small pieces of serpentine. 

 But, besides all these, there are in many places a great abundance of 

 red and grey sandstone, together with a multitude of limestone frag- 

 ments, which vary in character and hue. They are always more or 

 less water-worn ; some are of a yellowish tint, and of a soft, tough 

 nature, effervescing strongly with acids, while others are finely lami- 

 nated, varying in colour from greyish- white to dull grey and yellow : 

 these are generally of a fine earthy texture, and effervesce more 

 feebly on being treated with nitric acid. The limestone fragments 

 occasionally, though rarely, contain fossils. I have found a bit or 

 two containing traces of small shells, and have seen one fragment of 

 laminated grey limestone with the impression of a small fish : both 

 the head and tail were wanting, owing to the wearing of the fragment ; 

 but when complete, it might have been about 6 inches long. Ac- 

 cording to the reverend author of the statistical account of the parish, 

 these limestones were formerly sought out by the fanners, and burned 

 for lime, being found "generally from 1 to 16 lbs. in weight." 



I may mention that I have found similar bits of limestone in 

 various parts of Cruden and Slains, and also more rarely in Logie- 

 Buchan and Foveran ; they are, however, more plentiful in these 

 Kippet Hills than anywhere else. I have never found them either 

 scratched or striated in these gravel-ridges, but have occasionally 

 found them so in other places, where they occurred in clay or stony 

 earth. No rock of the same nature is known to me in this part 

 of Aberdeenshire ; but, from the abundance of the fragments, con- 

 fined as they are to a limited tract near the coast, I am inclined to 

 think that the source from whence they came must be within the 

 district, and that patches of similar strata probably occur deeply 

 buried beneath the Pleistocene deposits which drape the whole 

 country hereabouts. 



With regard to the broken shells which are mixed up with this 

 gravel, they are generally in very small pieces, and much worn. I 

 can distinguish at least eight different kinds, and probably more. The 

 hinge of the Cyprina Islandica is of frequent occurrence, its massy 

 thickness having stood the wear and tear better than most others. I 

 have found also some almost complete valves of a Tellina, which seems 

 to differ from the T. solidula only in being thicker and stouter. It 

 is a strong opaque shell, very tumid in the valves. Is this the Tel- 

 lina G?*cenlandica 1 Another is a shell of larger size, also a bivalve, 



vol. xiv. — part i. 2 m 



