617 ) 



XL. — On the Arctic Shell-Clay of Elie and Errol, viewed in connection with 

 our other Glacial and more recent Deposits. By the Rev. Thomas Brown, 

 F.R.S.E. (Plate XXXVII). 



(Read 4th March 1867.) 



My attention was called to the subject of this paper in May 1862, during a 

 short stay at Elie on the coast of Fife. Close to the friend's house with whom 

 I lived a part of the sea-bank had been laid open by the waves, and among other 

 deposits I found a bed of clay containing fossil shells, such as now live only in the 

 Polar seas. An account of this I had the honour of laying before the Society on 

 the 2d of March 1863. During the following autumn, while residing at Bridge 

 of Earn, I found a similar deposit, with the same species of shells, at Errol on 

 the Tay, and a notice of this I also laid before the Society on the 2d of May 1864, 

 intimating that at some future period I should again ask their attention to the 

 facts thus ascertained and the inferences to be drawn from them. The delay 

 that has taken place has arisen from other occupations, which leave little 

 time for such pursuits, but it has not been wholly without advantage. The 

 cuttings of the East of Fife Railway were carried past the outskirts of Elie, and 

 I had an opportunity of examining the series of beds, while laid open for the time, 

 in a very remarkable way. This last autumn also, while residing on the spot 

 for a few days, I examined with some care a transverse section, nearly at right 

 angles to the two former ; and now, in this paper, I shall endeavour first to state 

 in detail the facts connected with these separate localities, and then to bring into 

 one view the general results. 



The Errol Section. 



The great feature of the Errol district is the level clay of the Carse of Gowrie, 

 so valuable to the agriculturist. Inland, ridges of boulder-clay are found risiDg 

 from below the carse lands, and on the slope of one of these, near its base, lies 

 this deposit with its Arctic shells. The aspect of it is very different from that 

 at Elie, where the dark colour of the carboniferous shales shows itself in the 

 darkness of the clay, while at Errol the colour is light or reddish, from the red 



VOL. XXTV. PART III. 8 E 



