426 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



admitted when it is considered that it forms, as it were, the 

 starting point whence the great generalisations of geology 

 begin. The raised sea-beach bed is described by Hutton, and 

 is alluded to by his eloquent disciple Playfair, in his " Illustra- 

 tions of the Huttonian Theory," p. 441. " The marks of an 

 ancient sea-beach," he says, " are to be seen beyond the pre- 

 sent limits of the tide, and beds of sea shells, not mineralised, 

 are found in the loose earth or soil, sometimes as high as 30 

 feet above the present level of the sea. The ground on 

 which the Botanic Garden of Edinburgh is situated (the Old 

 Botanic Garden in Leith Walk), after a thin covering of soil 

 is removed, consists entirely of sea sand, very regularly strati- 

 fied with layers of a black carbonaceous matter, in thin 

 lamellso, interposed between them. Shells, I believe, are 

 but rarely found in it, but it has every other appearance of a 

 sea beach." In the " Lithology of Edinburgh," Dr Fleming, 

 in reference to the remarks of Playfair, says, — " The assump- 

 tion here of 4 sea sand' and 'sea beach' seem alike un- 

 warrantable from the description given of the sand ; and 

 I may add," he says, " that the occurrence of sea shells 

 in the sand has not been since authenticated." On the 

 high ground that extends between Granton and North Leith, 

 thence inland towards Edinburgh, I have had opportunities 

 of examining numerous excavations and sections where de- 

 posits of sand and gravel are frequently exposed, without 

 finding a trace of marine remains. These deposits constitute 

 the upper portion of the Taragmite and Akumite series, and 

 are extensively distributed over the surface in the vicinity of 

 Leith and Edinburgh. The ground chosen for the various 

 cemeteries, and for the Experimental and Botanical Gardens, 

 is a portion of the same deposit ; and the general inequality 

 of the surface seems to indicate that the materials were as- 

 sorted under the action of strong currents and eddies, in com- 

 paratively shallow water. A little to the westward of Leith 

 Fort, there is an interesting section of the boulder-clay, known 

 as the Man-trap, where a bed of ferruginous sand is seen rest- 

 ing on the clay, 15 feet above the high-water line. A short 

 time since a cutting was made for a drain in the sloping bank, 

 which extended from the margin of the cliff up to Anchorfield 



