52 PALEOZOIC TIME. [CHAP. V, 



an unconformity, and they are succeeded by other red 

 sandstones and conglomerates which have been termed the 

 Upper Old Red. Neither series contains any marine fossils,, 

 but fish have been found abundantly in both. 



The Old Bed Sandstone of Scotland has excited the 

 admiration and kindled the enthusiasm of many Scotch 

 geologists. Its immense thickness, the varied colours of 

 its component strata, its peculiar scenery, and the extra- 

 ordinary forms of its entombed fossils, have furnished 

 themes for all who have studied this unique formation. 

 Immortalized by the pen of Hugh Miller, the wonders of 

 the Old Eed Sandstone are familiar to all, while its history 

 in connection with the scenery of Scotland has been 

 recorded in the graphic and artistic descriptions of Archi- 

 bald G-eikie. 



Both writers have been struck by its massive thickness,, 

 and by the proofs of its having once extended far beyond 

 its present limits over the gneissic districts of Scotland. 

 Miller thought that it must originally have covered the 

 whole Highland region " from Ben Loinond to the Maiden- 

 paps of Caithness ; " 1 and though Dr. Geikie does not 

 accept this view, and believes that the areas in which it 

 occurs were always distinct and separate, yet he is forced 

 to admit that the Highland tracts which were not so 

 covered must have been comparatively small. Thus, after 

 describing the vast natural pyramids of Morven and the 

 Maidenpap, which form such conspicuous landmarks in 

 Caithness, and the chain of rounded, craggy, conical hills 

 between G-olspie and Helmsdale, he says 2 : "It is impos- 

 sible to look at these brown hills without being convinced 

 that they remain as a mere fragment of a great sheet of 

 conglomerate and sandstone which stretched away west- 

 ward across the abraded platform of schists forming the 



1 " The Old Red Sandstone," second edition, p. 53. 



2 " Scenery of Scotland," second edition, p. 139 et seq. 



