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PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
primeval ocean had been such as to prevent the upheave from bringing the beach 
to the surface, merely by so much diminishing the depth of the sea at its base. 
The upheave was from five to twenty feet above high water-mark—the beach 
consisting of shells, Sea-worm, Gravel, and Sand, from one to five feet in thick¬ 
ness, and in some places, as betwixt the Guard-Bridge and St. Andrews, covering 
an area of above two square miles. It encircled in all a coast of seventy miles in 
length. Of this, from Crail to Dysart, the Gravel consisted chiefly of Chalk-flints 
*—at Elie harbour exclusively so—yet the nearest known Chalk formation was 
Elambrough Head. Was it not probable from this that a Chalk formation under 
the bed of the ocean existed somewhere much nearer our shores than had hereto¬ 
fore been inspected ? 
Sir David Brewster expressed the extreme interest he felt in the subject, 
which was the very one towards the investigation of which geologists were chiefly 
directing attention. Dr. Darwin, who had acted as naturalist on board of her 
Majesty’s ship Beagle , had laid the results of his observations on the appearance 
of Coral islands before the world, and had gone to the North of Scotland to 
examine the parallel roads or terraces in Glenroy, at a level of hundreds of feet 
above the sea. These he conceived to be the beaches of a former ocean. He was 
sure Dr. Darwin would derive much gratification from finding the investigation 
of the subject going on here with results so important. He had had much cor¬ 
respondence with Dr. Darwin on this subject, and hoped Mr. Buist would he 
present at the next meeting, when he should lay extracts from these letters before 
the Society. He asked Mr. Buist whether he did not think that beaches might 
be traced at a much higher level in Fife than he described ? 
Mr. Buist said he thought so most decidedly, and had no doubt of there being 
sufficient evidence in existence that the plateau on which St. Andrews was built 
was a beach of higher altitude. He understood that Mr. Lyell had some time 
since pointed out three terraces to the East of Dundee, all of which he considered 
to be beaches, though at the time he could find no shells. Shells he (Mr. B.) 
understood had subsequently been found in a pit-well at Taybank, in the upper¬ 
most beach, probably not less than 150 feet above the sea level; and again, in the 
second one, in a Clay-pit on Mr. Hunter’s, of Blackness, property, about 60 feet 
up, and just behind Carnoustie. He spoke on these points, however, only from 
hearsay. The Dundee and Arbroath Railway completely split up the lowest 
beach, which was one bank of beautifully-arranged Gravel and shells, w T hich he 
had very carefully examined. It corresponded with the lowest beach of the Fife 
shores. He had examined the upper terrace appearances betwixt Newport and 
Ferry-Port-on-Craig, but could not find sufficient evidence of their being beaches. 
Mr. Page said that he had observed the same beds of shells, Gravel, and Sand, 
as had been described by Mr. Buist. On advancing up the Firth, this was 
