THE BRORA OOLITE. 367 



' I know you are heartily tired, but I must say some- 

 thing about the quarries. Imagine a border of com- 

 paratively flat country stretching between the hills and 

 the sea, and out of the middle of this border, where at 

 the broadest, imagine a wood-covered hill rising, quite a 

 dwarf-looking thing when compared with the mountains 

 behind, but a genuine hill notwithstanding. It stands 

 quite independent, a hill set up for itself, and descends 

 nearly as steeply towards the mountains as towards the 

 sea. Now, this independent hill is a hill of the oolite, 

 English, if I may say so, to its very heart ; nay, more, it 

 belongs to a more modern deposit of the oolite than any 

 other in the country. The flat base on which it rests 

 belongs to that inferior middle and lower part of the 

 Oolite known as the Oxford Clay and the Great Oolite, 

 whereas this hill belongs to that superior middle part of 

 the system known as the Coral Rag. It is an isolated 

 specimen of the deposit which, though somewhat too 

 bulky for most private collections, seeing it measures a 

 full mile in length by rather more than half a mile in 

 breadth, is excellently fitted for furnishing specimens 

 which, were it not there, could not be had nearer than 

 England. Now, it is in this insulated hill that the 

 quarries are opened. The stone is of a beautiful white, 

 and was at one time much run upon. There are houses 

 in Edinburgh built of it. It was found, however, to 

 have one great defect, though pretty and durable, it is 

 so exceedingly porous that a house built of it formed 

 but a kind of sponge that took in every drop that fell on 

 it during a shower and retained it, dispensing damp for 

 weeks thereafter. And so, greatly to the detriment of 

 Brora, for which at one time it promised to make a kind 

 of trade, it has fallen into disuse. It abounds in fossils, 

 curiously preserved as casts. It is really wonderful how 



