126 Proceedings of the Royal Fliysical 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 Eoad), 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. 
At 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 
