168 THE OLD RED SANDSTONE. 
formed along with it. From this circumstance, and from the 
general resemblance it bears to the deposits of the thermal 
waters of volcanic districts which precipitate siliceous mixed 
with calcareous matter, it has been suggested, and by no mean 
authority, that it must have derived its origin from hot springs. 
The bed is several yards in thickness ; and as it appears both 
in Moray and in Fife, in localities at least a hundred and 
twenty miles apart, it must have been formed, if formed at 
all, in this manner, at a period when the volcanic agencies 
were in a state of activity at no great distance from the 
surface. 
The upper belt of yellow stone, the terminal layer of the 
pyramid, is fossiliferous both in Moray and Fife — more 
richly so in the latter county than even the conglomerate belt 
that underlies it, and its organisms are better preserved. It 
was in this upper layer, in Drumdryan quarry, to the south 
of Cupar, that Professor Fleming found the first-discovered 
scales of the Holoptychius. At Dura Den, in the same 
neighborhood, a singularly rich deposit of animal remains 
was laid open a few years ago, by some workmen, when em- 
ployed in excavating a water-course fora mill. The organ- 
isms lay crowded together, a single slab containing no fewer 
than thirty specimens, and all in a singularly perfect state of 
preservation. ‘The whole space excavated did not exceed forty 
square yards in extent, and yet in these forty yards there 
were found several genera of fishes new to Geology, and not 
yet figured nor described —a conclusive proof in itself that 
we have still very much to learn regarding the fossils of the 
Old Red Sandstone. By much the greater portion of the 
remains disinterred on this occasion were preserved by a lady 
in the neighborhood ; and the news of the discovery spread- 
ing over the district, the Rev. Dr. Anderson, of Newburgh, 
