Vol. 62.] GLACIAL PERIOD IN ABERDEENSHIJRE, ETC. 33 



There was a complete absence, not only of littoral species, but 

 even of those characteristic of shallow water, and likewise of 

 broken shells. Owing to the decay of the shelly matter it was 

 difficult to extract specimens satisfactorily. 



At King Edward, about 6 miles south-south-east of Banff, a 

 considerable number of Arctic shells (some 30 species or more) have 

 been found in the banks of a small stream which is a tributary 

 of the Deveron. These have been collected by Dr. Milne of that 

 locality, Dr. John Home, E.R.S., and myself. Most of them occur 

 in confused beds of sand, gravel, and pebbly clay. The most 

 abundant are Tellina balthica, Bela turricula, Natica groenlandica, 

 and N. islandica. Many of the univalves are entire, but the others 

 occur only as single valves or broken fragments. A similar group 

 of shells occurs in a bed of fiue sand, on the Banffshire coast at 

 Gamrie, and at a similar height above the sea. Lists will be found 

 at the end of my paper on the ' Last Geological Changes in Scot- 

 land.' x In one spot, however, of the King Edward banks, I found 

 Arctic shells embedded in a fine bluish silt, apparently where the 

 organisms had lived and died. The prevailing species was the Tellina 

 proxima of Brown (T. calcarea of Chemnitz). The specimens were 

 of large size, with the two valves in conjunction and shut, part of the 

 dark-brown epidermis still remaining on them. The valves were, 

 however, more or less cracked, the upper one sometimes quite 

 squashed, as if caused by pressure from above ; but the fragments 

 were not shifted out of their place. Streaks, too, of carbonaceous 

 matter were observed near the shells, as if derived from the decayed 

 seaweed. Leda pernula and a Natica likewise occurred, both still 

 retaining the epidermis, but they were much rarer than the Tellina. 

 The silt also yielded foraminifera and ostracoda. This bed of bluish 

 silt is about 160 feet above the present sea-level, and 5 miles south 

 of the coast of the Moray Eirth. 



It must be borne in mind that, subsequent to this period of 

 submergence, there was a recurrence of very intense Glacial con- 

 ditions, as I endeavoured to show in my paper on the last stage of 

 the Glacial Period in Scotland. 2 This return of the great ice- 

 sheets broke up and destroyed the shell-beds, burying some of them 

 under heavy masses of Boulder-Clay, as we see at Clava, in Cantyre, 

 in the south of Arran, and in the later discoveries by Mr. Smith 

 in Ayrshire, as well as in this case at King Edward. At Clava, 

 6 miles east of Inverness, the shell-bed is at an altitude of no less 

 than 500 feet. There the group of species indicates shallow water, 

 the commonest kind being the Littorina litorea. The locality was 

 carefully investigated by a committee of the British Association 

 in 1892, with the result that Mr. Eraser, the original discoverer, 

 Dr. John Home, the late Dr. David Robertson, and myself, all 

 inclined to the belief that the shells were really in place, and 

 indicated a submergence exceeding 500 feet. 



1 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxi (1865) pp. 197 et seqq. 



2 Ibid. vol. xxx (1874) p. 317. 



Q. J. G. S. No. 245. d 



