On the Order of Succession in the Drift-beds of the Island of Arran

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Abstract
T he island of Arran has long been celebrated for the number of rock-formations, sedimentary and plutonic, which it contains, and for the varied relations in which they are displayed. A new interest has lately been imparted to it by the discovery of fossils in its superficial beds. Deep accumulations of clay, gravel, and sand had long been known to exist in its southern glens; but no one had examined them, either in the hope of finding fossils or with the view of working out an order of succession among the beds. The fossils are shells chiefly of Arctic species; and the fortunate discoverer was the Rev. R. B. Watson, of Edinburgh. An account of the discovery was laid-by him before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, on the 4th of January, 1864, and published in brief abstract in the ‘Proceedings’ of the Society in April of that year. The paper itself did not appear until five months later*. From this abstract, which came into my hands soon after its publication, it appeared that the entire mass of beds, often above 100 feet thick, was designated as Boulder-clay, and that the shells were not assigned to any particular place in the deposit. Now as this view was opposed to that which I held in common with most geologists of the west of Scotland, namely, that the entire mass of beds ought not to be embraced in one term “Boulder-clay,” and that the Arctic shells have a peculiar position, I was anxious to

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