1858.] JAMIESON PLEISTOCENE, ABERDEENSHIRE. 531 



Again, in the statistical account of Belhelvie, by the minister of the 

 parish, the late Rev. Dr. Forsyth, the following interesting passage 

 occurs: — "There is a great quantity of peat-moss in the parish. 

 Some of it near the coast is considerably under the level of the sea, 

 and is covered to the depth of 10 or 12 feet by sea-sand. It is pro- 

 bable that this moss extends a considerable length out to sea, and 

 that there is a submarine forest in this bay at no great distance. For 

 on Christmas 1799, when there was perhaps the most dreadful tem- 

 pest that any person remembered to have seen on this part of the 

 coast, several cubical blocks of peat-moss were cast by the sea upon 

 the sandy beach, some of them containing upwards of 1 700 cubic 

 feet. Pieces of wood, like branches of oak-trees, apparently con- 

 verted to a consistence like moss, passed through these blocks in 

 every direction. Both moss and wood were perforated by a number 

 of auger-worms of a large size ; and most of them were alive in their 

 holes. The moss was of a much harder consistence than any found 

 in this part of the country. Such large blocks could not have been 

 carried to the sea by any of the neighbouring rivers ; for they were 

 not swelled at that time, but were all firmly bound up with ice. In 

 general, when anything like a tempest occurs at sea, a considerable 

 quantity of peat-moss of the same kind is cast upon this sandy beach; 

 but no person remembers to have seen it in so large masses as at 

 Christmas 1799." The late Prof. MacGillivray, in his account of 

 the Mollusca of this part of Scotland (p. 306.), also states, " Dr. 

 Fleming informs me that he has seen Pholas Candida, as well as Pholas 

 crispata, in masses of peat cast on the beach near Donmouth." 



I have further been told that, in the Bay of Peterhead, peat is 

 occasionally brought up by the anchors of vessels ; and in the Statis- 

 tical Account of Fraserburgh I find it stated that "many of the 

 benty hillocks which skirt the bay stand upon moss or clay ; and in 

 1 760, a tree with roots and branches and a stem 20 feet long was 

 found entire under the sand within high-water mark." 



In the Moray Firth a submarine forest is known to exist between 

 Burghead and Nairn. 



The occurrence of extensive fields of peat, abounding in remains 

 of trees such as the Birch, Fir, Oak, and Hazel, and situated on 

 exposed tracts close to the sea, where trees can hardly be got to 

 grow at the present day, also renders it probable that the coast was 

 further off when these woods flourished. 



Horns of large extinct species of oxen have been found in the sur- 

 face-beds of peat, but are very rare. A specimen got in Belhelvie 

 is now in Marischal College Museum ; another found at a place called 

 Tuchin, in the parish of Cruden, is in Slains Castle*. 



I have also in my possession the root-fragment of a stag's horn 

 found in a bed of peat overlying the clay at Annochie in St. Fergus. 

 For this specimen, as also some other interesting fossils, I am indebted 

 to Dr. Gordon, R.N., St. Fergus. 



Into the subject of the transport of boulders, and other phsenomena 



* Both of these specimens I have seen, and find them to be remains of the 

 Bos primigenius. — October, 1858. T. F. J. 



