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-—' Kubbish 
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 
