186 PROCEEDINGS OE THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 8, 



tities of chalk flints occur, was first noticed by Dr. Knight, of Maris- 

 chal College, Aberdeen; the observation, Avhich was confirmed by 

 Dr. Buckland and Mr. (now Sir Charles) Lyell, was published by Sir 

 Roderick Murchison*. In 1841 Mr. Christie pointed out similarly 

 the existence of considerable quantities of chalk flints at Boyndie 

 Bay, Banffshire f. Mr. William Ferguson in 1848-49 showed that 

 over a large tract of Aberdeenshire chalk-flints in great abundance 

 are found in the drift at many points ; while at Moreseat, in the 

 parish of Cruden, transported masses of Greensand yielding many 

 fossils also occur J. Mr. Fergusons's observations were confirmed 

 by Mr. Jamieson§. At the British Association Meeting at Edin- 

 burgh in 1850 the late Hugh Miller stated that Mr. Dick, of Thurso, 

 and himself had found numerous boulders of chalk and chalk-flints 

 in the Boulder-clay of Caithness || . In Sutherland Mr. Joass informs 

 me that chalk flints are by no means uncommon in the Boulder- 

 clay ; and I have myself seen examples of them containing charac- 

 teristic chalk fossils. 



In 1857 the late Mr. Salter laid before this Society a very inter- 

 esting account of the fossils of the Cretaceous boulders of Aberdeen- 

 shire %. In that paper he showed that the masses at Cruden appeared 

 to belong to the Upper Greensand, though the fossils were badly 

 preserved and their determination thereby rendered difficult. I 

 may state that I have found boulders of Greensand containing 

 Exogyra columba, Sow., and other characteristic fossils of the Upper 

 Greensand in Elginshire and Banffshire, as well as in Aberdeenshire. 

 The chalk-flints were shown by Mr. Salter to contain a considerable 

 number of characteristic British Upper-Cretaceous fossils, together 

 with some forms hitherto only found in the Chalk of Sweden, and 

 others which were quite new. 



The great abundance of the relics of the Upper Cretaceous and 

 their wide distribution in the north of Scotland will probably be 

 accepted by all geologists as affording strong grounds for the suspi- 

 cion that, when the Boulder-clays were formed, large tracts of 

 Upper Cretaceous strata (Chalk and Greensand) were still in ex- 

 istence in the area, and supplied blocks and fragments to the accu- 

 mulating Glacial deposits. 



"When we turn our attention in succession to Scania, Morven in 

 Argyllshire, the Isles of Mull and Inch Kenneth, and the counties of 

 Antrim, Londonderry, and Tyrone, in the north of Ireland, we find 

 the evidences of the former existence of a great mass of Upper Cre- 

 taceous strata everywhere overlapping the Jurassic deposits. The 

 Upper Cretaceous beds appear at all these points to have consisted 

 of beds of Greensand at the base, in places passing into conglomerates 

 of peculiar and interesting character ; these graduate upwards into, 



.* Trans. Geol. Soc. 2nd ser. vol. ii. pt. 3, p. 365. 

 . t Edin. Phil. Mag. 1841. 



\ Proc. Phil. Soc. of Glasgow, vol. iii. (1848] p. 33 ; Lond. Edin. and Dublin 

 Phil. Mag. vol. xxxvii. (1850) p. 430; Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xiii. (1S57) 

 p. 85. 



§ Ibid. || Brit. Assoc. Rep. (1850), Proc. of Sections, p. 93. 



% Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xiii. (1857) p. 83. 



