Vol. 62.] GLACIAL TERIOD IN ABERDEEXSHIRE, ETC. 3 



thin seams of gravel and small pebbles, in which I observed many 

 small crumb3 of shell. A few bits of shell occur also at times in 

 the clay, and here and there a small pebble. The top of the section 

 showed a bed of somewhat different nature, about 10 feet deep, 

 consisting of a coarser earthy and pebbly brownish clay. I saw 

 a good many stones of various kinds and sizes lying in the pit, 

 which the workmen told me came out of this coarse clay at the 

 top. There were three big boulders of greenstone or syenite, one 

 of them 5 feet in length, ice-worn and scratched ; several small 

 pieces of grit or quartz-rock ; and several of Jurassic shale, some 

 of them ice-worn and containing ammonites. Bits of belemnites 

 were likewise to be seen, and pieces of red laminated sandstone, 

 also granite of different kinds. The base of the fine clay and sand 

 was not exposed, and probably some Boulder-Clay may lie between 

 it and the rock. 



This black clay, as I have before mentioned, occurs here and 

 there all along the coast-district from Fraserburgh westward to 

 Banff, Portsoy, and Cullen ; but, between Cullen and Inverness, 

 the material covering the rocks is of a more varied nature, 

 and generally lighter in hue. What has imparted this very dark 

 tint to the Banffshire Clay is not very evident. Perhaps it may 

 have been the waste of the slaty rocks and serpentine of that 

 district, or of some Jurassic beds in the basin of the Moray Firth. 

 This clay has evidently suffered much denudation since it was 

 originally laid down, for in some of the little valleys that run 

 inland from the coast I observed patches of it here and there along 

 their sides, as in the Tore Glen near Troup Head ; and in a gully 

 at JNorthfield, in the same neighbourhood, I noticed wasted masses of 

 it enveloped in a coarse Drift of browner hue. In a railway -cutting 

 at the south side of Fraserburgh, I also observed that this fine black 

 clay was covered by a few feet of brown clay of a coarser nature, 

 containing ice-worn stones. 



The dark clay may be traced right across the northern extremity 

 of Aberdeenshire, where it ranges on to Peterhead, becoming 

 gradually less black and more of a leaden -grey where it meets and 

 mingles with the red. Along the top of the high cliffs from Banff 

 eastward to Troup Head, there is little cover of any sort on the rocks, 

 but at Melrose Head I obtained the following section, beginning at 

 the surface : — 



Feet. 



1. Coarse pebbly clay of a brownish colour 3 



2. Ferruginous laminated clay, without stones 4 



3. Fine black clay, like that of Blackpots, with few stones, but 



some of them ice-marked 1 



4. Brownish debris of an earthy character, with some ice- 



worn stones 3 



5. Debris of slate-rock, often ice-marked 2 



6. Slaty rock, forming the cliff beneath. 



At Mill of Eathen, 4 miles south of Fraserburgh, a deep bed of bluish 

 clay occurs, covered by a few feet of gravel. Fragments of Balanus 

 and shells are found in this clay. The fine dark clay of the Banffshire 



