436 Mr. W. Ferguson on the occurrence of Chalk Flints 



to have been reversed. It may be suggested, Might not the 

 elevation of the great mountain ranges of the Continent have 

 been sufficient to cause a current from its shores capable of 

 exercising the transporting power required ? The presump- 

 tion is, however, against such a supposition. 



Standing on the ridge of the Hill of Kinmundy, and looking 

 towards the south and east, there is spread out before the eye 

 a wide expanse. Slightly to the north of eastward the ridge 

 is continuous to the sea at Buchanness; westward it undu- 

 lates, receding northward, and again stretching out a promon- 

 tory to the south. Beyond this there is a valley, and again 

 the hills rise, stretching away westward and northward, run- 

 ning out in a series of high grounds by Dudwick towards 

 Turriff and Delgaty, and so onwards to the sea at Boyndie. 

 Between this ridge and the sea, on the south and south-east, 

 there stretches out from the sort of bay described a breadth 

 of five or six miles of country, presenting inequalities of sur- 

 face, but in the main level till it reaches the sea, with a coast 

 line elevated 180 to 200 feet above water-mark. Over this 

 valley calcareous sands occur, and near its centre is the green- 

 sand formation. And standing, as I have said, on the hill 

 ridge, and marking, as one cannot fail to mark, the band of 

 flint boulders that line near their highest and at an equal ele- 

 vation the various bays and promontories, it requires no great 

 stretch of imagination to conceive of the waves of the German 

 Ocean as having once rolled even hither, bearing with them, 

 and depositing on their innermost bounds, the rounded flints 

 that now mark their ancient shore. 



I have already stated, that the shores of the little bays near 

 Peterhead present large quantities of the rounded flints. 

 These may be either brought down by streams, or cast up from 

 the sea, or both, I have also inferred, from the condition of 

 my specimens of organic remains from the Cruden greensand, 

 that that formation, if not in situ, cannot at least be far re- 

 moved from its original position ; not presenting evidence of 

 being water-rolled, and not capable of undergoing, without 

 destruction, that process. 



I wish to connect these two facts with an idea hinted at by 

 Mr. Nicol, and additional grounds for which have been pointed 

 out to me by Mr. Hugh Miller. Across the southern district 

 of England we have a certain sequence of geological forma- 

 tions, including in regular succession the Lias, Oolite and 

 Wealden, succeeded by the Cretaceous. Across that portion of 

 Scotland immediately to the north of the district now under 

 consideration, we have part of the same sequence commencing 

 with the lias. This formation at Cromarty, and at Brora in 



