MALCOLMSON OLD RED SANDSTONE. 347 



sandstones so as to conceal part of the conglomerate. Immediately 

 after, however, it appears in its proper position, undistinguishable 

 in its characters from the great inferior conglomerate, wasting, like 

 it, into round and pointed turrets, and having many of the largest 

 boulders rent across. Above this stratum, which is about 30 feet 

 thick, sandstone and coarse sandstone -conglomerates rapidly alter- 

 nate, as on the Spey and at Gamrie ; and from this to the sea a 

 great thickness of friable red sandstones and fine conglomerates is 

 exposed, identical with those at the Bridge of Fochabers, and in 

 which no organic remains have yet been found. On the whole, there 

 can be no doubt that the relations of these rocks are the same as of 

 those at Lethen. [PI. XI. fig. 9. represents the shale with nodules 

 higher in the Burn, and red sandstones interstratified with the upper 

 part of the great conglomerate.] 



To the eastward the gneiss approaches the coast ; and in the 

 Bum of Golachy, friable sandstone, passing below into a compact 

 limestone, containing angular fragments and pebbles of the neigh- 

 bouring primary rocks, rests unconformably on the gneiss. The 

 appearances at Buckie are more interesting. The Bum, descending 

 from the contorted mica-slate of the hills near Letterfurie, passes 

 through great beds of north-western drift, containing many angu- 

 lar fragments of the Morayshire sandstones and cornstones; and 

 at the Mains of Buckie cuts through strata of gneiss, quartz-rock, 

 and fine micaceous and chloritic schists, dipping to the south at a 

 high angle. A little lower down, a thin vein resembling serpen- 

 tine crosses the strata (of which it contains fragments) at right 

 angles ; and the stratified rocks are in several places much brecciated. 

 On the sharp edges of the gneiss (PI. XI. fig. 10), andJiUing up the 

 depressions between the projecting ledges, a coarse haematite-red con- 

 glomerate rests, incKned to the north at a low angle ; and the lower 

 beds within high-water mark pass into a coarse limestone, which is 

 occasionally worked. The conglomerate does not exceed 20 or 30 

 feet in thickness, and the only strata seen on it are a few patches of 

 a red schistose sandstone, in which we found a distinct fragment of 

 a tuberculated bone, apparently the same as those of Tynat, and 

 some small scales. Beyond this the shore is occupied by quartz - 

 rock, gneiss, &c., which are much brecciated and full of veins of calc- 

 spar. These rocks exhibit the finest specimens of an elevated shore 

 I have. anywhere seen, and the fishing- villages are for the most part 

 built on the raised beaches at the foot of their steep escarpments. 

 The " Kings of Cullen " are great masses of hard red conglomerate, 

 left in one of the bays of this ancient coast as memorials of the 

 elevation of the land, by which they have been removed from the 

 destructive infiuence of the waves. They contain no fossils. 



Conclusion. — From the facts above detailed, we may conclude — 

 1st. That the primary stratified rocks of the southern shores of 

 the Moray Frith were elevated at very considerable angles pre- 

 viously to the deposit of the Old Eed Sandstone, and that the 



