314 Notes regarding the Serpentme Rocks on Dec Side. 



origin was placed beyond all doubt, by specimens in the Wood- 

 wardian collection, and that he had found, in the quarry at 

 Cherry Hinton, the impression of a branch of some vegetable of 

 the fir tribe, with the hnear leaves surrounding it ; yet it is dis- 

 tinctly stated that M. Konig believed them to be of animal ori- 

 gin, and that there were specimens in my cabinet with scales of 

 fishes attached to them. It was also remarked (Geol. Suss. 

 p. 158), that their constituent substance was precisely similar to 

 that of the vertebras and other bones of fishes found in the chalk ; 

 and that, from this analogy, I believed they would hereafter 

 prove to be parts of fishes. I scarcely need observe that this 

 conjecture has been recently affirmed by the ingenious experi- 

 ments of Dr Buckland. Vide Geological Transactions^ New 

 Series, vol. iii. p. 222. On Coprolites, i^-c. 



The arguments of the author of the excellent paper which 

 has occasioned these remarks, are, however, in no respect weak- 

 ened by this fact, since dicotyledonous wood occurs abundantly 

 in the Gait and green-sand, and sparingly in the flint nodules 

 of the chalk. I am not certain that it has been found in the 

 Hastings' beds. 



Castle Place, Lewes, January 20. 1830. 



Notes regarding the Serpentine Rocks on Dee Side. By the 

 Rev. James Farquharson. (Communicated by the Author.) 



X HE accompanying specimen of serpentine is of the rock of a con- 

 geries of summits of the hill named Coil, about two miles SW. of 

 the Manse of Glenmuick, on Dee Side, Aberdeenshire. Residing 

 some days last July in that neighbourhood, my attention was 

 directed to these summits by their singular aspect, so different 

 (rom that of the granite mountains with which they are every 

 where surrounded, and the greenness of their surface, amidst 

 mountains every where covered with heath. I took an oppor- 

 tunity one day to ascend them, and found their composition as 

 different from that of the neighbouring granite masses as their 

 aspect, as the specimen shews. Their vegetation, too, is quite 

 different, consisting principally of grasses (various Festucas 

 and Poas chiefly), to the very summit, 700 or 800 feet above 

 the bed of the river, here 700 feet above the sea, with a vast 



