ON THE 
CORALS OF THE OOLITIC SYSTEM OF 
SCOTLAND. 
Corals are extremely rare in the Lias. Messrs. Milne- 
Edwards and Haime figure, in their elaborate “ Monograph of 
the British Fossil Corals,” only three Liassic species, two of 
them exceedingly minute Zurbinolide, and the third appar- 
ently a Cyathophyllum, of doubtful lineage, and very probably, 
it is stated, a misplaced palzozoic specimen. In the Lias of the 
eastern coast of Scotland, at Eathie, Nigg, and Shandwick, I 
have not succeeded, after the search of years, in finding a single 
coral; in that of Skye, however, I have been more fortunate. 
When examining, nearly eight years ago, the Liasic deposit at 
Broadford, — by far the most extensive development of this 
formation in Scotland, for it runs across the island from sea to 
- sea, in a belt from two to four miles in breadth,—I came, near 
the base of the formation, and at a little distance from where it 
leans against the so-called Old Red Sandstone of Slate, on what 
seemed to be a dark-colored bed of concretionary limestone, of 
very irregular surface, and varying from three to four feet in 
thickness. ‘The seeming concretionary masses were separated 
by what appeared to be a gray, indurated mud, which wrapped 
them round, concealing their true character; but where the 
edge of the bed was exposed to the lashings of the surf, the 
