THE LATE REV. GEORGE GORDON, M.A., LL.D. 69 



resolved to test this, and, with the aid of Dr. (then Mr.) 

 Gordon and Mr. Stables, the sandstone beds from Buckle to 

 Culloden were searched where sections could be found, and 

 fossils similar to those of Cromarty were found at Altyre 

 and in other localities. 



Dr. Malcolmson in 1839 laid the result of this work 

 before the Geological Society of London. He also induced 

 his friends to join him in the search for traces of ice-action 

 among the Scottish Highlands similar to those pointed out 

 not long before by Agassiz in Switzerland. They made a 

 careful exploration of several of the valleys and mountains 

 of Inverness-shire and Ross-shire, especially around Mam Soul, 

 finding abundant evidence of the former existence of glaciers 

 on a great scale. 



The publication of " The Old Red Sandstone," by Hugh 

 Miller, in 1841, served to stimulate Dr. Gordon's zeal in the 

 investigation of the Morayshire deposits, and led to subse- 

 quent discoveries of an unexpected and even perplexing 

 nature. In 1 844 a quarry at Lossiemouth yielded fossils 

 that were regarded by Agassiz as scales of a fish, to which 

 he gave the name Stagonolepis Robertsoiii. A fossil found in 

 1851 at Spynie was examined by Mantell, and was deter- 

 mined by him to be a reptile, named by him Telerpcton 

 Elginense. The Stagonolepis was subjected in 1855 to a 

 careful examination by Huxley, with the aid of better speci- 

 mens than had been within the reach of Agassiz, and was 

 proved to be a reptile related in structure to crocodiles. In 

 1858 Dr. Gordon procured portions of another reptile, named 

 by Huxley Hyperodapedon Gordoni, which showed a close 

 relationship to a genus found in Triassic rocks elsewhere. 

 He published in the "Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal " 

 in January 1859, pp. 14-56, a very valuable paper " On the 

 Geology of the Lower or Northern Part of the Province of 

 Moray : its History, Present State of Inquiry, and Points for 

 Future Examination." The title indicates the scope of the 

 paper (which sums up all that was then known of the geolog- 

 ical deposits of the lower part of Moray), and calls attention 

 to the value of Malcolmson's work. The physical character- 

 istics of the sandstones of the district, he therein maintains, 

 give no indication that the lower and upper beds belong to 



