124 AUTUMNS ON THE SPEY. 



tained nothing at all. Success was evidently out 

 of the question until I could get at the fish-bed 

 itself. 



With the assistance of two able-bodied quarry- 

 men, who worked hard for a couple of days, a 

 considerable portion of the accumulated rubbish 

 and several dangerous projecting masses over- 

 head were finally removed, and this part of the 

 cliff at length presented a different appearance. 

 The base near the stream was composed of several 

 layers of hard sandstone, perfectly distinct from 

 each other, yet varying but little in colour or 

 consistency ; alternating with these were occa- 

 sional seams of pudding-stone or conglomerate, 

 all, less or more, of a ferruginous or deep-red 

 tint, above which, about fifteen feet from the burn, 

 a drab-coloured layer apparently marl or indu- 

 rated clay had been exposed, studded here and 

 there with nodules of the same appearance as 

 those I had already found in the stream, but so 

 firmly imbedded in the shale that it required the 

 use of a small pickaxe, especially made for the 

 purpose, to remove them without injury. This 

 was the face of the fish-bed, or rather, all that 

 remained of it, which I was enabled to reach by 

 a narrow sloping terrace, or shelf, immediately 

 underneath. The diameter of the marly stratum 



