mid Greenland Fossils in Aberdeenshire. 431 



then the attention of the British Association has been drawn 

 to them at their last meeting in Edinburgh by the Rev. J. 

 Longmuir of Aberdeen, who had previously, in 1847, published 

 a notice on them in the Witness newspaper. Still the know- 

 ledge of these curious deposits is confined to a few ; and it is 

 hoped the following short description of them will not be un- 

 acceptable or uninteresting to English readers. 



On glancing at the geological map of Scotland, it will be 

 observed that the portion of Aberdeen and Banff shires cut off 

 by a line drawn from the mouth of the Ythan to that of the 

 Doveron, is, with the exception of a narrow band of old red 

 sandstone, represented by the colours denoting granite, gneiss, 

 mica-slate and quartz rock. These rocks come to the surface 

 everywhere, and yet superimposed on these, lie immense mul- 

 titudes of chalk flints, and at one place at least a small patch 

 of greensand. 



Throughout the whole of this district, with the exception 

 of Mormond, which is 810 feet high, there are no hills. Still 

 the country is by no means level ; and it presents to the eye 

 in the ever-recurring hillocks and deep gullies, together with 

 large accumulations of rolled gravel, ample evidence of widely 

 extended denudation. 



Running slightly to the south of west, there is a ridge of high 

 ground taking its rise nearly at Buchanness, and stretching 

 across the country continuously for eight or ten miles. At its 

 eastern extremity it branches out. One of the branches termi- 

 nates south of Buchanness in the granitic mass of Stirling Hill; 

 the other ridge runs north of Buchanness, and may be said to 

 terminate in the granitic escarpment of the Black Hills. All 

 along the shore between these points, wherever the rocks admit 

 of a beach, quantities of water-worn flints are found mingled 

 with the other pebbles, evidently brought there by the waves. 

 They are also found, although sparingly, on the southern 

 ridge, or Stirling Hill. On the Black Hill and neighbouring 

 hill of Invernettie, the surface is almost covered with them. 

 This ridge, at the distance of about seven and a half miles 

 from the sea at Salthouse Head, attains an inland distance of 

 about five miles from the coast opposite Slains. The flints are 

 met with on the surface at several points along this line. The 

 ridge is bare and moorish, covered with peat and heather, and 

 this prevents the accurate tracing of the flints. At this point, 

 however, seven and a half miles along the line of the ridge, 

 and about five miles from the sea, opposite Slains, they have 

 been laid bare. 



They occur at the extreme verge of the parish of Old Deer, 

 and are principally seen upon the farm of Bogingarry, on the 



