156 Miscellaneous . 



Cryptogams, and to a host of minute analyses of higher vegetables. 

 It is inapplicable only where, as in Algse, the tissues alter so much 

 in drying as to retain few of their characters, and where the applica- 

 tion of moisture does not make the tissues swell out to their original 

 size. It is, however, possible that this method may be modified, so 

 as to comprise even this important class of microscopic objects. — 

 Gardeners' Chronicle, April 26, 1851. 



NOTICE OF A SEA-BEACH DURING THE SILURIAN EPOCH. 



One of the localities where fossils are obtained amongst the Silu- 

 rians of the southern highlands of Scotland, is at the eastern side of 

 the entrance into Kirkcudbright Bay. At this locality they occur in 

 several spots, and the deposits which afford them vary considerably 

 in appearance. Several beds of dark-coloured flags containing abun- 

 dance of Graptolites of the species ludensis and Sagittarius, amongst 

 which the Orthoceras annulatum occurs, are to be met with. A light 

 grey shale is also found, having imbedded within it nodules, some of 

 which abound in fossils named in the * Quarterly Journal of the Geo- 

 logical Society,' vol. iv. p. 206, and which appear to have been trans- 

 ported from other fossiliferous beds, rather than to be concretions of 

 limestone gathered around organic bodies, inasmuch as the fossils 

 themselves are generally either on the surface of the nodule or occur 

 in a line slightly within its margin ; and the nodules often bear evi- 

 dence of friction and rolling. Besides these beds, there are seen near 

 Reaberry Head deposits consisting of fine-grained greywacke sand- 

 stone with intercalated shales, or rather indurated clays, which ap- 

 pear to be of considerable extent, and which, from the sandstones 

 and clays being of nearly equal thickness, and also from their regu- 

 larly alternating, offer characters which are uncommon amongst the 

 Scotch Silurians. One of these clay beds has imbedded within it 

 irregular lines of coarse sand, and amongst this sand fragments of 

 shells occur. These fragments consist of portions of Terebratula 

 lacunosa and T. semisulcata, Orthocerata, and minute pieces of other 

 shells, together with crinoidal rings. In some of the cells of the 

 Orthocerata the fragments of the other shells are seen mixed with 

 sand ; and the broken shells themselves are of a white colour, very 

 different from what Silurian fossils commonly present ; and on the 

 whole their appearance is not far removed from that of the broken 

 bleached and withered shells of our own shores. 



The greywacke sandstone also affords some information concerning 

 the origin and circumstances attendant on the beds which are inter- 

 calated with it. On the under surfaces of some of these sandstones 

 lines of desiccation occur, indicating that the clayey deposits had been 

 exposed to the influence of solar heat ; and the nature of the deposits 

 themselves shows that the circumstances under which they originated 

 were somewhat similar to those which prevail on some of our coasts 

 at the present time. On the whole the appearance of these thin beds 

 of greywacke sandstone and indurated clay is such as to show that in 

 this locality, during a portion of the Silurian epoch, there existed a 

 sea-shore, on the rippled surface of which grains of coarse sand and 

 fragments of shells were strewed. And as we find at the present time, 



