Fish and Drought 433 



fish must have concentrated themselves in a body over 

 districts of muddy bottom in which they knew they could 

 -take refuge as a last resort. When desiccation was complete 

 every fish in the ditch, without a single exception, had succeeded in 

 burying itself in one or other of these restricted areas of mud. Not 

 one of them appears to have made the mistake of seeking refuge 

 in the marlv bottom. When completely dry the ditch, or trough, 

 consisted of two formations, the more extensive consisting of 

 hard sandy marl and destitute of life, the less e.\ con- 



M-ting of soft mud and teeming with aquatic life. Further, 

 the two formations are contiguous as well as contemporaneous, 

 and togetlu r they cover an area of not more than eight hectares. 

 As illustrating the geological significance of the facts 

 just recorded, the following passage may be quoted from 

 Sir Archibald (irikir's Text-book of Geology (1903), p. 1003: 



"The water basins of the Old Red Sandstone might be 

 supposed to have been, on the whole, singularly devoid of 

 aquatic life, inasmuch as so large a proportion of the red sandy 

 and marly strata is unfossiliferous. In some of the basins, 



re the sediment is not red and sandy, it i- evident that 

 lift was \tremely abundant, as is shown, for example, by the 

 vast quantities of fossil fishes entombed in the grey bituminous 

 flagstones of Caithness and Orkney. It may be observed 



re grey shales occur intercalated among red sandstones and 

 conglomerates they are often full <>f plant remains, and may 

 contain also ichthyolites and other fossils whi 1. ially 



absent from the coarser red sediments. Then- would appear 

 t<> have been occasions ,,f -udd n .tin I widespread destru 

 the waters of the Old Red Sandstone, for platf- 

 occur in whi< h the remain^ an- tlii klv < n>wded together, yet 

 so entm- that they could n<>t have been transported from a 



have been covered <>\n uith ^ilt 1> 

 1 time to decay and undergo much s 

 plates." 



last sentence of this passage seems to describ* 

 actual < ..nditiMii ! r iv bed of the moat mum! thr Park 



of M wMui.i appeal in a geologist at Accessary 



tval of time had < -l.ipxrd whi h is req separate the 



