314 Geological Society. 



rupted by the Corncockle Sandstone, but reappears, or its proximity 

 is traceable, in Lochmaben and Torthorwald parishes, striking towards 

 theCriffel in Kirkcudbrightshire. This E.N.E. and W.S.W. direction 

 agrees with that of the axis observed by Mr. Nichol in Roxburgh- 

 shire. The axis itself, where seen (in the Rennel Burn, in Dryfe 

 water, and in Torthorwald), consists of an anticlinal of purple grits. 

 The overlying rocks are thin-bedded and alternating sandstones 

 and purplish shales; and these appear to have been much folded, re- 

 peated again and again by flexures, and considerably altered by the 

 consequent pressure. 



The author then adduces e^^dence of these sandstones and shales 

 having been deposited in shallow water, and probably under littoral 

 conditions, The sandstones to the south of the axis, at Binks in Rox- 

 burghshire, are ripple-marked, and the alternations of sandstone and 

 shale are frequent. There have been here observed casts of desiccation- 

 cracks, — surface-pits, resulting, in the author's opinion, from littoral 

 action, — Annelid tracks, — the track of a small animal, probably 

 Crustacean, resembling in miniature the Protichnites of the Potsdam 

 sandstone, — and Fucoids. 



In the low-lying purplish shale (overlying the axis to the south) 

 which occurs with thin-bedded sandstone at the Upper Cleugh Burn, 

 in Applegarth parish, Protovirgularia is met with, which is found 

 also in the Barlae flags ; and Graptolites occur at Dalton Rocks, in 

 the parish of Dalton (also on the south side of the axis), in shale 

 associated with ripple-marked sandstone, and distinct from the 

 other Graptolitic rocks of Dumfriesshire, 



On the south side of the axis there is no trace of the great An- 

 thracitic and Graptolitic bands which traverse the north-eastern part 

 of Dumfriesshire ; and the author thinks that no strata occupying so 

 high a position are developed on the south side of the axis in the 

 district under notice. He thinks also that the fossiliferous beds of 

 Grieston (Peeblesshire) and what he regards as their equivalents in 

 Kirkcudbrightshire (the Barlae flags) should have a lower position 

 than that of the anthracitic and graptolitic shales assigned to them ; 

 although, from the numerous flexures that the rocks have here 

 undergone, their relative positions is much obscured ; and he thinks 

 that they may be the Scottish representatives of the fucoidal sand- 

 stones underlying the Graptolite-beds of Sweden and Norway. 



Mr. Harkness regards the fossiliferous shales and sandstones, 

 more particularly referred to in this communication, as underlying 

 the Barlae and Grieston flags, and as the lowest rocks in Scotland 

 that have yet afforded fossils ; and therefore as containing some of 

 the earliest records we possess of organized existence. 



3. " On Fossil Remains in the Cambrian Rocks of the Longmynd." 

 By J. W. Salter, Esq., F.G.S. 



In this paper the author communicated the discovery of organic 

 remains in some of those ancient sediments which have hitherto been 

 termed " Azoic." Of these fossils, some (traces of Annelides and 

 fragments of a Trilobite) were found by Mr. Salter in the unaltered 

 sandstone beds on the eastern side of the Longmynd ; and another 

 (a Fucoid ?) he discovered in the Moel-y-ci near Bangor. 



