V. The Geological Position of the Irvine Whale Bed

Abstract

Skirting the coast of Ayrshire are certain loose deposits of sand and gravel, at some places represented by beds of clay, which are found up to at least 120 feet above sea-level. These are especially well marked in the district between Ardrossan and the Doon, and nowhere better than about Irvine and Kilwinning, where they reach their greatest breadth, stretching about four miles inland from the present coast-line. Some of the best exposures of these beds are to be seen in the lower reaches of the Irvine Water, for a mile below, and two miles above, Irvine Town Bridge. Near the artillery battery, on the north side of the Irvine Water, and a short distance below the Glasgow and South-Western Railway bridge, the following section is to be seen:— In this section high tides rise to about bed No. 4. In the 3rd and 4th beds are specimens of Ostrea edulis, Gardium edule, Littorina littorea, Mytilus edulis, Pecten maximus , and Scrobicularia piperata , some in good condition; the bivalves often have the hinge ligament attached, though much decayed, but the smaller shells, though often retaining their shape, are all in a soft, pulpy state. In the thick, upper sand-bed no shells are to be seen, having evidently all been dissolved away by the action of carbonated water. At Kidsneuk, on the north-east side of the river, the recently-constructed Irvine branch of the Caledonian Railway made a long section through part of these beds, and it was interesting to observe how the This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract