TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 1023 
of the stalagmite; (d) the breaking up of the stalagmite floor and the introduction 
of the boulder clay. The position of the caverns almost at the crest of a ridge of 
carboniferous rocks makes it clear that the boulder clay could not have been intro- 
duced by streams, therefore the only ccnclusion I can arrive at is that during a 
period of great submergence, either during or subsequent to the glacial epoch, the 
material was introduced by marine action. 
10. Note on Specimens of Fish from the Lower Old Red Sandstone of 
FPorfarshire. By the Rey. Hucu MircHett. 
The author stated that at the meeting of the Association in 1859 he exhibited 
specimens of fish which were afterwards described by Sir P. Egerton in the Tenth 
Decade of the Geological Survey. With these specimens was a beautiful spine, the 
relations of which were unknown, but of which other portions have since been found. 
The author submitted descriptions which he regarded as sutlicient to justify the 
founding of three new species. The specimens were from Farnell and Turin. 
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12. 
The following Papers and Report were read :— 
1. The Elgin Sandstones. By J. Gordon PuIuuirs. 
The question of the age of the reptiliferous sandstones of Elgin is not yet 
settled. Murchison and Sedgwick decided on stratigraphical grounds that they 
belong to the Old Red formation, which was afterwards confirmed by Paleontology. 
Later discoveries, however, of reptilian remains (Stagonolepis, Telerpeton, and 
Hyperodapedon), raised the question of the age, one party maintaining that the 
reptiles were of Triassic origin, and the other, of the upper beds of the Old Red. The 
opinions of the supporters of the Triassic theory were gradually accepted, owing to 
paleontological discoveries, and, indeed, so sure were paleeontologists they were 
right, that one said if the sandstones turned out to be Old Red, he would give up 
geology altogether, and another said he would not believe they were Old Red until 
he saw a reptile with a Holoptychius in its mouth. There were a few geologists 
who still clung to the old belief, among them being Dr. Gordon of Birnie and the 
late Professor Nicol. The question, however, has again been opened by the dis- 
covery of reptilian remains and of Holoptychian remains in the same quarry, the 
latter underlying the former, but there is a bed of conglomerate, five feet thick or 
thereabouts, between the two deposits. This bed has died out in the meantime, 
and it is doubtful if it will reappear ; the Old Red may be found passing under the 
reptiliferous in natural order right on the coast.1_ Indeed there is evidence of the 
existence of Holvptychius a little west of Stotfield,in ground which has hitherto 
been deemed purely reptilian, which tends to confirm that idea. This quarry is 
situated on the ridge which runs south-west by west to north-east by east in the 
immediate vicinity of Elgin, and called Cutties Hillock. In Professor Judd’s 
admirable paper on the ‘Secondary Rocks of Scotland,’ published in 1873, he has 
the two systems faulted against each other above Findrassie, but the fact of 
reptiles and a Holoptychius nobilissimus having been found in this quarry in 
deposits apparently conformable shows there is no such powerful fault. But 
when Professor Judd’s paper was written no other conclusion could be arrived at. 
He knew that reptilian remains had been got immediately to the north of the 
1 Since the above was written the workmen have, on the north side of the quarry, 
gone down into sandstone, which I regard as being identical with that containing 
Aoloptychius, and, in my opinion, the two deposits are lying apparently perfectly 
conformable, with no conglomerate between. It seems to me to have died out alto- 
gether, only an occasional pebble appearing, 
