Bronze Implement found near Currie, M id-Lothian. 93 



Museum. Some of the members thought, however, that 

 this need form no insurmountable reason why the paper 

 might not also be read to this Society, beds of sand and 

 gravel having of late become of much more interest to all 

 naturalists, from the presence in many of them of early 

 human remains ; accordingly he had much pleasure in being- 

 allowed to read the following notes : — 



Y. Remarks on a Bronze Implement, and Bones of the Ox and Dog, 

 found in a bed of undisturbed gravel at Kinleith, near Currie, Mid- 

 Lothian. By John Alex. Smith, M.D. (The Bones and Bronze Im- 

 plement were Exhibited.) 



Locality. — A little to the east of the village of Currie, and rather 

 more than five miles to the west of Edinburgh, the Water of Leith 

 receives on its right bank the streamlet of the Kinleith Burn, which 

 flows in a rapid though short course from the Pentland Hills imme- 

 diately to the south. Below the junction of the Kinleith Burn, 

 the narrow valley of the Water of Leith gradually becomes wider, 

 and opens into an oval-shaped haugh of tolerably level land, 

 measuring altogether some 8 or 10 acres ; and, at the lower 

 extremity of this vallej^, where the banks on each side again 

 approach the stream, the bed of the river, as the Ordnance Survey 

 Map informs us, is 400 feet above the level of the sea. 



The Water of Leith runs along the northern border of the haugh 

 just referred to ; and on the level part of the ground are situated 

 the paper mills of Kinleith, about midway between the stream 

 and the sloping bank, which bounds the valley on the south. The 

 engine chimney rises at the south side of the works, and from its 

 prominent position in the gorge of the little valley, it has on two 

 different occasions been struck and partially injured by lightning ; 

 in consequence of which the proprietor, Mr Henry Bruce, deter- 

 mined last summer to build a new chimney, a little to the south 

 and east of the old one. For this purpose, a circular space of 

 ground, about 23 feet in diameter, was marked out on the green 

 turf of the level haugh, at a distance of 293 feet from the present 

 bed of the stream ; and the process of excavation commenced. 

 The superficial vegetable mould was first cut through and removed, 

 when finely laminated beds of sand and clay were exposed ; in 

 some places the former, in others the latter being most abundant. 

 [Specimens of the pure sand, and clay, were exhibited.] 



Section of Beds. — These beds of sand and clay measured from 5 



