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 
lamellas, 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 '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 
aTC extensively distributed over the surface in the vicinity of 
Leith and Edinburgh. The ground chosen for the various 
cemeteries, and far 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 Avas made for a drain in the sloping bank, 
which extended from the margin of the clifi" up to Anchorfield 
