196 PROCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Mar. 6, 



Since writing the most of this, I have received from Sweden a 

 translation of a report by Mr. G. Widell upon the marks at Mar- 

 strand. I was happy to find that he had come to the same conclu- 

 sion with myself as to the uncertainty of any inferences to be drawn 

 at present from these marks. He mentions in this paper an appear- 

 ance of a daily rise and fall of the water, which, if I understand 

 him right, takes place at the same hour, and therefore cannot be a 

 lunar tide, but must depend on a sort of land- and sea-breeze. I did 

 not observe this, though it may have taken place. I may mention, 

 at the same time, that I was under great obligations to that gentle- 

 man, who is the Kector of the Academy at Marstrand, and kindly 

 assisted me in looking for the marks. 



2. On a Post-Tertiary Lignite, or Peat-Bed, in the District of 

 KiNTYRE, Argyllshire. By His Grace the Duke of Argyll, 



K.T., D.C.L., r.E.s., r.G.s. 



[The publication of this paper is postponed.] 

 (Abstract.) 



A section of the Peat-bed was seen in a bank cut through by a small 

 stream near the village of Southend. The bank appears to belong 

 to the " Old Coast Line," which is so well-marked a feature around 

 most parts of the west coast of Scotland. The Peat at the point de- 

 scribed is 3 feet 9 inches thick ; above it is a bed of fine clay, from 

 13 to 14 inches thick, containing hazel-nuts, followed by a bed of 

 fine yellow sand 4 feet thick, which is succeeded by a bed of coarse 

 gravel, with small boulders of the thickness of 14 feet. 



About 400 yards further up the stream there is a bed of fine black- 

 blue clay with Mussel-sheUs. 



These beds appear to furnish evidence of some five or six different 

 changes of level. (1) The Peat-bed was depressed under shallow 

 and very muddy water, depositing the bed of fine clay ; (2) a further 

 depression subjected this mud to an inroad of the sea, bringing 

 with it the sand which overlies the clay ; (3) a further depression, 

 or possibly a partial elevation, exposing the same surface to some 

 strong current or littoral action, brought down upon it the bed 

 of coarse gravel ; (4) all these beds were consolidated and re- 

 elevated above the sea ; (5) another depression enabled the sea 

 to erode the valley of which the " Old Coast Line " forms the boun- 

 dary, and in which this section is exposed. A long period seems to 

 have followed, during which this Old Coast Line formed the coast of 

 Scotland ; and during that period the upper Mussel-bed seems to have 

 been deposited. (6) A final elevation of the land determined the 

 present coast-line, and left the old one as it now appears — subse- 

 quently modified by atmospheric action, and cut through by streams. 

 All these changes occurred during what, geologically, must be 



