Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. ix. — to face page 50. 



Note on the Fossil Plants from Shetland. 



I find, upon reference to the Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural 

 History Society, vol. i., that in the year 1808, the Rev. Dr. Fleming 

 had already noticed the existence of plant-remains in the sandstones 

 of the Shetland Isles. 



I was unaware of this fact when I made the short communication 

 respecting the supposed Devonian plants of Lerwick at p. 50 of this 

 volume of the Journal. 



The sandstone of Papa Stour *, says the Rev. Dr., " is exactly simi- 

 lar to the sandstone in the Islands of Foulah and Bressay. In the 

 former of these islands [Foulah] the sandstone is accompanied with 

 bituminous shale and clay-ironstone, and rests on gneiss as the fun- 

 damental rock. In Bressay the sandstone includes beds of clay-slate, 

 and contains vegetable impressions, similar to those common in the 

 sandstone of the coal-fields of the Lothians. Hence it seems reason- 

 able to conclude that the difi"erent rocks in the island of Papa Stour, 

 together with the sandstone of the Zetland Islands, belong to the 

 Independent Coal Formation." — Loc. cit. pp. 174, 17.5. 



This paragraph, although written forty-five years ago, is highly 

 valuable, and shows that more extensive and precise surveys are re- 

 quired before we can draw the exact line of demarcation between 

 the Old Red Sandstone and the Carboniferous deposits. Mv own 

 opinion, however, remains for the present as before stated, — ^. e. that 

 the Shetland plants in question belong to the Upper Division of the 

 Old Red Sandstone ; between which formation and the Lower Coal 

 Sandstones, that he beneath or are associated with the Carboniferous 

 Limestone, there exists a very intimate connection in several parts of 

 Scotland. 



[R. I. M.] 



June 23, 1853. 



* The two islands, Papa Stour and Foulah, lie on the western side of Shetland. 

 Bressay, close to which Lerwick is situated, is on the eastern side. 



