Book Description

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: No. XVIII.?On The Occurrence Of Peat With Arctic Plants In Boulder-clay At Faskine, Near Airdrie, Lanarkshire. By James Bennie, of the Geological Survey of Scotland. Read llth April, 1894.) In a cutting into Boulder-clay at the brickwork at Faskinc were exposed a number of peaty layers, to which, as giving a glimpse into the conditions of the glacial period different from what we get from ice-sheets and glaciers, I wish to direct the attention of the members of this Society, as having always been distinguished by the attention they have given to the study of glacial deposits. Our knowledge of the occurrence of these peaty layers is due to Mr. Peter Jack, who first noticed them, and to Mr. Robert Dunlop, who brought me samples for examination, and who afterwards accompanied me on a visit I made to the spot, showed me the peat in place, and helped me to dig out further samples. Mr. Jack sent a large sample which he had dug out himself from a different layer than that from which the previous specimens were token. I also made a special visit somewhat later, and took from the different patches as much material as 1 could get access to. All these various lots were afterwards washed and examined, with the result that many seeds, arctic plants, and mosses, were found. These were submitted to Mr. Clement Reid for examination, except the mosses, which were sent to Mr. Hobkirk. From Mr. Reid's list subjoined to this paper it will be seen that the plant-remains, chiefly leaves, belong to a species of Arctic Willow, Salix herbacea, which has been obtained in greater numbers from other old lake-deposits in Scotland. Mr. Reid considers that the presence of these Arctic Willows at the low levels where they are found proves the climate of Scotland to have been 20 degrees colder at the ti...