Dr Fleming's Remarks on the Modern SPrata. 12S 
should bear in mind, that the aspect of the country is now wide- 
ly different from that which it must anciently have presented. 
There are several facts which lead me to believe, that the Ger- 
man Ocean was once an inland lake, on the east side of our cen- 
tral chain of primitive rocks ; and that the Minch was another, 
on the west side, having, as its barrier against the Atlantic, ano- 
ther primitive chain, the wreck of which now forms the Long 
Island. 
- The organic remains found in this lacustrine diluvium, in- 
clude of course those of the animals and plants which occupied 
the districts through which the currents passed. In some cases 
they seem to be collected together in one spot ; in other cases 
they have been found detached. 
As in some measure connected with lacustrine diluvium, that 
which is produced by waterspouts deserves to be noticed. Many 
striking examples of this sort are on record. The effects are 
similar to the bursting of ^a lake, and the matter deposited exhi- 
bits nearly the same character. 
Marine Diluvium . — The evidence proving the origin of this 
kind of diluvium, rests on the occurrence of the remains of ma- 
rine animals^ in such circumstances as to indicate that the sea 
had transported them to their present situations. Many sud- 
den risings of the sea have taken place within the period of au- 
thentic history, by which shells, and sand, and gravel, have 
been placed in situations now considerably removed from the 
influence of the tide. Other inundations, of which neither his- 
tory nor tradition preserve any memorial, have left their spoils 
in some cases far inland, and at higher levels. 
-In 1806, I examined a bed of sea-shells which occurs to the 
westward of Borrowstounness, on the Forth. At Craigenbuck, 
about two miles west from the town, I found it upwards of three 
feet in thickness, resting on a bed of small gravel, and elevated 
thirty-three feet above high-water mark. The shells belong to 
animals still existing in the Frith of Forth. The colnmon oys- 
ter and mussel occur in greatest abundance ; besides which were 
observed. Patella vulgaris. j Venus pullastra^ Buccinum unda- 
tum and lapillus, Turbo littoreus^ and Nerita littoralis T his 
* See a description of this bed read before the Wernerian Society 30th Novem- 
ber 1811, and published in the Annals of Philosophy for August 1814. 
