1858.] MmCHISON SANDSTOliTES OE ELGIN. 423 



quartzose gneiss cemented in a reddish- and greenish-white paste and interlaced 

 with red- and green-spotted marly sandstone, c. Reddish fine-grained sandstone. 

 d. Marly grit, with some pebbles and many concretions of red and green marl or 

 shale (this is seen to have a thickness of 60 feet), e. Coarse conglomerate, of 

 very variable thickness, composed of fragments of the crystalline rocks, varying 

 from grains of sandstone to 7 or 8 inches in size, the whole in a calcareous 

 cement with calc-spar. /. Yellowish sandstone, g. Deep-red sandstone, h. Yel- 

 low sandstone, occasionally reddish, i. Sandstone of pinkish-white colour. 

 j. Cornstone of Cothall*. 



Whilst such is the general section of strata clearly exposed in a 

 conformable succession as you descend the Findhorn River, a single 

 vertical section at the cliff called the Ramphlet, on the right bank of 

 the stream, presents the following order from the base upwards : — 



Feet. 

 Pinkish sandstone, alternating with deep-red or purplish shale and 

 blotehes of deep-red and green colours in a highly micaceous 



mass, with much black mica . 50 



Whitish and pinkish sandstone 12 



Conglomerate of crystalline rocks in a calcareous cement ... 35 



Greenish- white and reddish sandstone 50 



Dark-red sandstone 40 



Yellowish sandstone 30 



217 



It is chiefly beneath these last-mentioned red, green, white, and 

 yellow sandstones that many fossil fishes were found by Dr. Mal- 

 colmson and Lady Gordon Gumming at Clune, Lethen Bar, and 

 Altyre f? both in nodules in argillaceous shale, and in a thin flaghke 

 band of yellow and deep red colour, — the beds, as seen in the bum 

 near Altyre, splitting into rhombic flags, and resting at once on the 

 lowest conglomerate and sandstone. In these ichthyolitic beds, evi- 

 dently representing the Caithness Flags, no Holojptychii are found. 

 Owing to the vast denudation which the lower tracts of Morayshire 

 have undergone between the meridian of Altyre and Forres on the 

 west and that of Birnie and Elgin on the east, it is impossible so to 

 follow any one band of rock as to mark its variations and changes 

 along the strike of the strata. 



Already, however, in Ross-shire, and still more on the Findhorn 

 banks, it has been shown that light-yellow colours occur through- 

 out the group ; so that on reaching Elgin we find that the red beds 

 are chiefly seen in the lower parts of the section, and that, with 

 some partial alternations of red rock, the mass of the sandstone 

 which is visible is of a Ught-yellow colour (occasionally under the 

 chisel working as a white freestone). 



* The upward continuation of the series to the north of CothaU is obscured by 

 drift and gravel, and the subsoil of the whole tract between Forres and the sea is 

 hidden under dunes of blown sand, forming low hills. Light-coloured sand- 

 stone crops out, however, in the Water of Nairn at the town of that name. (For 

 a graphic account of this district, see 'Anderson's Guide to the Highlands.') 



t The fossil fishes which were found at Clune, Lethen Bar, Altyre, &c., were, 

 according to Agassiz's description, Pterichthys lotus, P. Milleri, P. productus, P. 

 cornutus, P. major ; Coccosteus oblongus, C. maximus ; Cheiracanthus microle- 

 pidotus; Biplacanthus striatulus, D. longispinus ', Cheirolepis Cummingiw ; 

 Osteolepis major ; Diplopterus immrocephalus, &c. 



