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THE OLD RED SANDSTONE. Ill 



deep warm colour to the light tint of the frame- 

 work in which it is set. 



Hugh Miller, the first great explorer of the 

 old red sandstone formation in Scotland, whose 

 charming descriptions are prohably unsurpassed 

 in power and eloquence, conjectures that after the 

 burial of the fish in a soft muddy sediment, the 

 chemical influence of the decaying animal matter 

 deposited the lime with which it was charged, and 

 hence the calcareous nodules in which we find 

 their remains enclosed. Probably the putrefying 

 bodies of the fish might have possessed a similar 

 power of attracting to themselves the oxide of 

 iron from the surrounding mass of ferruginous 

 sand. 



Although I had previously seen a few similar 

 specimens in public museums, yet I confess that 

 they never excited in me more than a temporary 

 interest, or passing feeling of admiration the 

 rival charms of the huge reptiles of the Oolite or the 

 gigantic mammalia of the Tertiary epoch, although 

 comparatively recent, soon distracting my atten- 

 tion but under what different circumstances was 

 I now examining them ! The old red sandstone 

 actually surrounded me, its great antiquity 

 forcing itself more than ever on the imagination. 

 Nothing beneath me, between it and the pre- 



