GEOLOGY. 



431 



feet limestone, or indurated clay ; and saw that in the 

 centre of each there was a broken line of deep black, in 

 the direction of which they separated more easily than 

 in any other. I have split up several hundreds of them, 

 in the expectation of identifying their contents with the 

 remains at Eathie, but they seem to belong to a formation 

 altogether different. I find none of the chambered uni- 

 valves, no bivalves, no belemnites, but abundance of 

 fish ; some scaled like the haddock, some roughened like 

 the dog-fish, or shark. Some of the nodules are sprinkled 

 over with small irregular patches, somewhat resembling 

 scales ; in others there are confused masses of a bitumin- 

 ous-looking substance. In some, unmixed with the 

 scales, I can trace what seem to have been the bones of 

 fish ; in others, what appears to have been wood ; and 

 in one specimen, which I unfortunately spoiled in the 

 breaking, there were the remains of what seemed to 

 have been a toad, or frog. I have kept for you four of 

 the best specimens I could find, and shall send them 

 when I have procured a few more for you from the beds 

 at Eathie. Owing to the prevalence of sand and clay in 

 the nodules, the remains are very imperfect ; they seem, 

 too, to have been subjected to great pressure. I find 

 that the purer the limestone, the more entire the shells, 

 or fish, which it contains. But I am afraid you will 

 deem all this mere tediousness. The entire province of 

 geology is a terra incognita to me, and I do not know 

 whether I am now describing to you a part of it with 

 which every geologist is acquainted, or a part known to 

 only myself/ 



END OF VOL. i. 



