122 AUTUMNS ON THE SPEY. 



precipice, as the height can scarcely exceed thirty 

 feet. Here, however, about twelve or fifteen feet 

 from the hase, are the remains of the fish-bed 

 where the interesting collection of fossils were 

 exhumed by Mr. Lennox, and many specimens in 

 the unrivalled collection of the late Lady Gordon 

 Gumming of Altyre, the rarity and perfection of 

 which excited even the admiration of Agassiz. 



I had been referred for any practical informa- 

 tion I might require to an intelligent observer 

 residing in the immediate neighbourhood,* whom 

 I found most obliging and ready to impart it. 

 He accompanied me to the spot, but held out no 

 hope of a successful exploration on my part. In 

 fact, he told me plainly, that " the golden age " 

 was past, that the fish-bed was nearly exhausted, 

 and that the prizes obtained a few years ago could 

 not be equalled by the results of any future 

 labours. He pointed out to me that the debris 

 which had fallen from the upper surface of the 

 cliff the till, or glacial drift had obscured, and 



* Mr. Simpson, who, when this fish-lied was a virgin mine for 

 explorers, made a valuable collection of these fossils, the greater 

 part of which he subsequently presented to Sir Roderick Murchi- 

 son, by whom they were deposited in the Museum of Practical 

 Geology attached to the Geological Survey of Great Britain, in 

 Jermyn Street, London ; an institution whose good fortune it 

 was, for many years, to possess as its chief "The Emperor of 

 Siluria." 



