On the Danger of Hasty Generalization in Geology. 433 



earthenware, tobacco-pipes, &c, and its origin is sufficiently 

 explained by a large board a few yards distant — Rubbish 

 may be laid down here free.'" 



" It is with the stratum marked 5 that we have chiefly to 

 deal. But before entering into its details, I would dwell 

 pointedly on the fact, that it is a regularly stratified deposit, 

 with thin parallel interlaminations of sand and clay; its oyster- 

 valves and stones lie horizontally, and it passes upward by 

 gradations into brown sand, which is covered by well strati- 

 fied shell-sand and gravel. It cannot for a moment be con- 

 founded with the dark earth 7i, in which no trace of stratifica- 

 tion can be detected, and which, moreover, rests on the edges 

 of the other deposits. Whatever may be the contents of this 

 bed of silt, they are undoubtedly of contemporaneous depo- 

 sition ; in other words, all the materials imbedded in the 

 stratum were laid down at the same time with the stratum 

 itself. And that this deposition and arrangement were effected 

 tranquilly by the tides, is abundantly manifest from the strati- 

 fied aspect of the bed, as well as from that of the sand which 

 covers it." In this bed (5) Mr Geikie found pieces of pottery 

 and bones, to which he thus alludes : — " The pieces of pottery 

 found by Dr Young and myself were of two kinds ; the first 

 and most abundant were of a pale yellowish-grey colour, from 

 two to nearly six lines in thickness, and of a firm compact, 

 but somewhat granular clay. They showed no glaze, but had 

 a rough exterior and a rounded form like fragments of a 

 flagon or urn. All the pieces we obtained occurred in the 

 space of two or three yards, and might have belonged to one 

 vessel. We also found, however, one or two fragments of a 

 thinner and finer kind of pottery of a red colour, and coated 

 with a pellicle of greenish glaze. Having obtained as many 

 fragments as could be gathered, after a careful search during 

 two visits to the sand-pit, we submitted them to Mr M'Culloch, 

 the curator of the Scottish Antiquarian Museum, requesting 

 his opinion before informing him where they had been found. 

 He at once pointed out, that they strongly resembled frag- 

 ments of Roman pottery ; and he stated, that if found near a 

 Roman station, he would have no hesitation in pronouncing 

 them to be Roman." " We have no doubt, therefore, that 



