264 report — 1859. 



feet above high- water mark. The fossils are almost exclusively molluscous. No 

 teeth, scales, or bones of fishes or reptiles have been found. Univalves, with the 

 exception of ammonites, sorely crushed in general, are rare and minute, correspond- 

 ing in this respect to the neighbouring patch in situ of the Lias Marlstone near 

 Shanbryde, where the rock is crowded with finely preserved bivalves with a stray 

 univalve occurring now and then. Fragments of Belemnites, joints of Pentacrinites, 

 and spines of Cidaris occur in goodly numbers. Bivalves are very numerous, in good 

 preservation, and easily extracted. Area, Nucula, Leda, Lima, Mya, Perna, Ostrea, 

 Gryphaa, Pecten, Gervillia, Plncunopois, Anomia, &c, are represented in large num- 

 bers and very considerable variety of form. Many of the larger shells are found 

 lying in the clay as unworn as though they had died but yesterday. Ostrea gigantea, 

 belonging to the Lias, and Ostrea Marshii, ranging from the Cornbrash to the Inferior 

 Oolite, show that the deposit is not in situ, a conclusion to which the whole cir- 

 cumstances of the case would lead, apart from the paleeontological evidence. 



Similar remains are met with at many different spots of the long valley stretching 

 from near the mouth of the Spey westwards to the Findhorn. In the Loch of Spynie, 

 in Duffus, and Inverugie they have been found in great abundance and variety. The 

 trough which lies between the Reptilian beds of Spynie and Findrassie on the south, 

 and Lossiemouth and Covesea on the north, seems charged with these mingled 

 remains of various divisions of the Lias and Oolite. The only point of importance 

 regarding them is to determine whence they came ; for plainly they are not in situ. 

 Two hypotheses have been put forward. One is that they have been all transported 

 by ice from some land far away. The extent of the ruins, the great regularity of 

 the stratification, the identity of materials in the fossil-bearing masses and the 

 clay which contains them, their position, in Urquhart at least, beneath the boulders 

 of the drift, the presence in some of the beds of numerous fragments of the adjacent 

 cornstones and sandstones, and the existence in the clay of unprotected Gryphseas 

 unworn and uninjured, — all seem to point in a different direction. 



The other hypothesis is, that we have here the re-arranged and re-formed debris 

 of Oolitic and Liassic formations formerly existing in the neighbourhood, slowly 

 wasted away by Old Ocean, and laid down again in new shape where they are now 

 found. This appears the true explanation, and consists with and explains all the 

 circumstances of the case. This view is confirmed by the fact that, at Linksfield and 

 Shanbryde, we have large unbroken remnants of Lias in the latter place in situ. The 

 recent discovery of an oolitic deposit in situ lying unconformably on the Lossiemouth 

 sandstones, still further manifest the correctness of this second hypothesis. I regard 

 then these fossils as furnishing evidence that the whole of the valley, from Findhorn 

 to Spey, was at one period covered to a considerable depth with the Lias and Oolite. 

 Formed in the depths of ocean, these had been elevated above its waters, and may 

 have formed for uncounted ages the dry land of the Tertiary period. During the 

 gradual depression of the morning of the glacial day, when the Scotland that now is 

 was all but buried beneath the waters of an Arctic sea, the oolitic graveyard of 

 Moray was brought within the reach of the wild waves, was slowly wasted and broken 

 up ; and its crushed and powdered materials, quietly deposited and reformed near 

 the spot they originally occupied, were covered over by the sand and clay and boul- 

 ders of the Drift. A counter movement then took place. The buried territory was 

 slowly elevated. The rearranged oolitic debris rose to near the surface, where it 

 remained until the upheaval to which we owe our raised beaches put it for a time 

 beyond, but only just beyond, the destroyer's reach. But be the period and mode of 

 operation what they may, there is enough to warrant the supposition that in these 

 and kindred fossils scattered over the low ground, we have clear proof of the former 

 existence of formations which have all but disappeared from among us. What bear- 

 ing, if any, this may have upon the question of the age of our Reptilian sandstones, 

 must be left for others to decide. 



On the supposed WeaMen and other Beds near Elgin. 



By C. Moore, F.G.S. 



(See Abstracts of the Proceedings of the Geological Society, March 28, 1860.) 





