126 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



quired an almost silky lustre, and where grooves and scores 

 in the rock are discernible, showing with what force the 

 contiguous portions of the rock have pressed against each 

 other. The writer had the pleasure of pointing out this in- 

 teresting phenomenon to Professor Torell during his recent 

 visit to this country, and of receiving from him a confirma- 

 tion of the view now indicated. 



In the other instances in which the cutting reaches the 

 rock, it discloses one or other of the members of the coal- 

 measures, such as shale, sandstone, &c. 



Next to the rock lies the boulder-clay, where it has not 

 been denuded. The principal section of it is at Elie Bridge 

 (the bridge under the Elie and Kilconquhar Road), where 

 it appeared as a hard till, maintaining a perpendicular face 

 in the cutting, and full of boulders, some of which were 

 resting on the rock, and some embedded in the till. These 

 boulders were almost universally of greenstone, of various 

 sizes, and scored in that peculiar manner which has been 

 referred to glacial action. From under one of these boulders 

 the writer took some fragments of wood, apparently of birch 

 or hazel. But besides this hard till, there is a softer and 

 more unctuous blue or reddish-blue clay, which appears at 

 Kilconquhar Station ; at Elie, west of the bridge at the 

 station ; at St Monance Station ; and at Anstruther Station, 

 beds of considerable thickness, besides presenting less im- 

 portant sections at several other places on the line. It 

 would be premature to take for granted that it is precisely 

 the same bed of clay which is displayed at these several 

 places. At Kilconquhar, and, it is believed, at Anstruther, 

 it has been wrought as a brick-field. The most careful ex- 

 amination has failed to detect any shells at Kilconquhar, 

 nor have any, so far as is known, been found at Anstruther. 

 A t St Monance, it is said that a shell was found by one of 

 the navvies, but unfortunately it has not been preserved. 

 But at Elie, in the locality already mentioned, specimens 

 have been found of the Saxicava rugosa, and of the Astarte 

 elliptica. The junction between this unctuous clay and the 

 hard till formerly mentioned is immediately west of a level 

 crossing between Elie Bridge and Elie Station Bridge. Both 



