Scientific IntelUgeyice. — Geology. 189 



self. The fossils of this and the superior beds are identical for 

 the greater part, witli those which occur in the strata above the 

 coal in the east of Yorkshire ; and, of the whole number of 

 species collected by the author, amounting nearly to fifty, two- 

 thirds are well-known fossils of the oolite ; the remainder be- 

 longing to new species represented in the last numbers of the 

 Mineral Conchology. The plant, of which the Brora coal ap- 

 pears to have been formed, is identical with one of the most cha- 

 racteristic vegetables of the Yorkshire coast, but differs essen- 

 tially from any of the plants found in the coal measures beneath 

 the new red-sandstone : It has been formed into a new genus by 

 Mr Konig, and is described by him in the present memoir, un- 

 der the name of Oncylogonatum. The author, therefore, con- 

 siders the Brora coal, from its associated shells and plants, as 

 the equivalent of that of the Eastern Moorlands of Yorkshire. 

 At Loth, Helmsdale, and Navidale, shale and sandstone overlie 

 calcareous strata resembling cornbrash and forest-marble, and 

 these are, in many cases, dislocated, where they are in contact 

 with the granitic rock, and distorted where they approach it. 

 The base of the entire series above mentioned is seen at low wa- 

 ter on the coast near the north and south Sutors of Cromarty, 

 where the lias, with some of its characteristic fossils, is observable 

 resting upon the sandstone of the red conglomerate, — the latter 

 in contact with granitic rock. On the north-west coast of Scot- 

 land, several members of the oolitic series, with their peculiar 

 organic remains, were recognized by the author in the Isles of 

 Skye, Pabba, Seal pa. Mull, &c. A short sketch is given of the 

 geognostic relations of the schists and sandstones of Caithness, 

 some of which are probably referrible to the new red sandstone ;• — 

 some of these beds resembling the copper slate of Thuringia, and 

 its associates ; whilst the fossil fish recently discovered at Bannis- 

 kirk, though the species is new, appear to belong to the same 

 family with those of Mansfeldt, in Germany. The paper con- 

 cludes by adverting to the support given by the preceding facts 

 to the great importance of zoological evidence in the identifica- 

 tion of distant deposits : — since the existence in the north of 

 Scotland, of a large portion of the oolitic series of England, has 

 been demonstrated from the agreement of organic remains, al- 

 though the mincralogical characters of the beds containing these 



