Geological Society. 543 



Ichtliyolites identical with those at Scot-craig near Elgin ; also 

 a section through the middle and inferior sandstones on the Burn 

 of Lethen. Along this burn, from Earlsmill to Cald Hame, fine 

 sections of sandstones, calciferous conglomerates, and marls similar 

 to those of the Findhorn beds, are laid open, and the same organic 

 remains are found in considerable numbers, with the addition of 

 buckler-shaped bones allied to Cephalaspis. These beds rest at 

 Cald Hame on a deposit of thin-bedded red sandstones and hard 

 conglomerates, which are succeeded by a considerable thickness of 

 hsematitic red schistose sandstone, resting apparently on the Clunes 

 limestone, containing Ichtliyolites. These slaty beds resemble the 

 upper red sandstones of Cromarty and Ross. In a small quarry in 

 the grounds of Lethen, thin seams of shale and clay dip under the 

 red sandstones, and contain nodules resembling those of Gamrie, 

 and bituminous layers and remains of the species of Cheiracanthus 

 common at Clunes ; also plants resembling Fuci. Beneath the 

 shales are a few feet of soft white sandstone, succeeded by the great 

 inferior conglomerate. 



The finest fish, often of a plum- blue colour, have been obtained 

 from an excavation on the farm of Lethen-bar, in large nodules 

 enclosed in a soft, reddish-brown schist, probably a prolongation 

 of the shales. At Clunes, a mile to the eastward, similar remains 

 occur in a stratum of clay and decomposed shale. The author 

 has ascertained, by careful comparisons, that the known species 

 obtained at the above localities are the same as those found in 

 Orkney, Caithness, Cromarty, and Gamrie, and belong to the 

 genera Dipterus, Diplopterus, Cheiracanthus, Cheirolepis, Osteole- 

 pis, Coccosteus, and another singular creature, which he proposes 

 to describe hereafter. The plants above noticed, and fish scales, are 

 also found near the hill of Rait in a ridge of red schistose sandstone. 



The fossils of the valley of the Nairn are then described. Frag- 

 ments and casts of tuberculated scales and bones, resembling some 

 of those of Lethen-bar, occur at Balfreish in a compact light-blue 

 limestone, containing angular fragments of gneiss, porphyry, &c., and 

 an overlying conglomerate. At the S.E. extremity of Culloden 

 Moor, and opposite the Druidical temples of Clova, are beds of 

 bituminous shale, and a black calcareous rock, similar to the Caith- 

 ness pavement, some of which contain nodules, often very small, 

 enclosing fish scales and vegetable impressions. The bituminous 

 rock, Dr. Malcolmson is of opinion, is continuous with that at 

 Inches, 4 miles to the west, and 2 south-west of Inverness, described 

 by Prof. Sedgwick and Mr. Murchison, and shown by them to be a 

 prolongation of the bituminous schists of Caithness and Strath- 

 peflfer. 



The banks of the Spey, the Bum of Tynat, and the strata at 

 Buckie in Banffshire, have been discovered by Dr. Malcolmson and 

 the Rev. G. Gordon, to contain the same remains. The localities 

 mentioned are the beds of shale and red sandstone opposite Dipple, 

 where remains of the Coccosteus, Dipterus, and Osteolepis magus, 

 occur. These beds are overlaid by others resembling those which 

 cover the Ichtbyolites of Lethen and Cromarty. 



