1858.] JAMIESON PLEISTOCENE, ABERDEENSHIRE. 525 



some distance to the north, between it and the Episcopal chapel of 

 Cruden, I found several occurring on the surface of the land, espe- 

 cially beside some small croft-houses. The largest were from 5 to 

 6 feet in diameter, but many were from 2 to 3 feet ; and they con- 

 sisted of red granite, gneiss, and trap. One of these blocks I ob- 

 served to be much smoothed or ground down, and covered with striae 

 and scratches on part of its surface ; and this occurred in a fragment 

 of hard crystalline quality. On drawing the attention of one of the 

 crofters to this circumstance, he said that he had noticed the fact, 

 and that these markings were confined to the lower surface or bed 

 of the stone. It had been a large block, some 6 feet in diameter, 

 and had been blown to pieces by gunpowder when I saw it. Much 

 of the ground here (which is at an elevation of probably 200 feet 

 or upwards) seems to consist at the surface of coarse stony earth, 

 varying in colour from reddish to a dirty bluish-grey, and contains 

 many small stones of gneiss, granite, trap, micaceous schist, compact 

 felspar, and quartzose rock. I picked up also two or three small bits 

 of limestone of different colours, and similar in quality to those which 

 occur in the gravel of the Kippet Hills. One of these limestone-bits 

 was covered with striae and scratches on both sides. I noticed also 

 some nodules of flint, and a rounded pebble of red sandstone. Several 

 striated fragments were observed by me in this coarse earth, the 

 stones of which are seldom sharply angular. 



In the Rev. Mr. Pratt's entertaining volume upon the district of 

 Buchan, I find it stated that the outer walls of the parish-kirk of 

 Cruden, erected in 1777, are said to have been all built "from the 

 greystone of Ardendraught, a huge boulder of granite on the Old- 

 toun Farm, upon which, from time immemorial, Hallow fires had 

 had been lighted." 



I have pointed out that the stratified sand and clay can be traced 

 for some distance up the rivers which fall into the sea along the 

 eastern coast. The same is the case along the Moray Firth. 



The Kinedart Water, a tributary of the Deveron, flows through a 

 Pleistocene deposit of considerable thickness ; and deep down in the 

 high banks along which it runs, I found specimens of the following 

 shells imbedded in a fine, dark, sandy mud : — 



Tellina proxima. Leda pernula. Nucula tenuis. 



? Tellina solidula. ? Dentalium. 



The most plentiful was T. proxima , always complete, with the two 

 valves in connexion and shut, the dark-brownish epidermis remain- 

 ing. What is, however, remarkable, the valves were always more 

 or less cracked, especially the upper one, which was often quite 

 squashed into the lower. It looks as if the shell had been crushed 

 with the animal in it, as it is generally filled with a dark powder, 

 and a blackish stain frequently extends to the sand around it. The 

 specimens were often of large size, measuring 1-| to If inch across. 

 Pressure from above, and suddenly applied, seems necessary to account 

 for the condition of these shells : the crushed fragments were never 

 shifted sideways out of their position. 



2 m 2 



