426 PKOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETy. [DoC. 15, 



Findhorn section ; and hence I place the first or lowest cornstone 

 of the Elgin tract (at the spot called Foths) in the generalized 

 transverse section, fig. 1. Indeed, the rock there is like many of 

 the small concretionary cornstones of Herefordshire. In advancing 

 to the north, or towards the town of Elgin, from the sloping higher 

 grounds where the lower beds are exhibited, the plain is so obscured 

 that little is seen under the drift, except at two or three quarries of 

 thick-bedded, massive, grey -coloured cornstone from which the drift 

 has been removed, and which I believe to be a continuation of the 

 calcareous band of the Cothall quarries on the Findhorn. If we 

 judge from their very slight general inclination to N.N.W., these 

 limestones must pass under the whole of the sandstone-ridge to the 

 south of Elgin. 



On reaching the parallel of Elgin the ground begias to rise in 

 undulations, and consequently to expose here and there some rocks 

 which, judging from their position and fossils, must belong to a higher 

 division of the group than any portion to the north. Thus, at Bishop 

 Mill, north of the town, the scales of the Holo^tychius Nohilissimus 

 are alone found in yellowish gritty sandstone (sometimes working 

 under the chisel as a white close-grained sandstone), the beds being 

 very slightly inclined to the N.N.W. 



These rocks occupy, on the whole, a low wooded ridge extending 

 to the Knock of Alves on the W.S.W. ; and thus far, therefore, all 

 is true Old Ked Sandstone. It was towards the north-eastern summit 

 of this ridge, or in the quarries west of Spynie Castle, that the cast 

 of the Telerpeton was found ; and Capt. Brickenden has fairly repre- 

 sented * how the sandstone, dipping to the N.E., seems to pass under 

 the hard, concretionary, siliceous or cherty cornstone on which the 

 old Castle stands. Again, where the ridge thickens in the meridian 

 of Elgin, other remains have been found in the quarries of Ein- 

 drassie. These, which are chiefly hollow moulds, and which Mr. P. 

 Duif and the authorities of the Elgin Institution have kindly sent up 

 for examination to the Museum of Practical Geology, have, under the 

 skilful manipulation of Professor Huxley, given out solid casts repre- 

 senting the forms of teeth, vertebrae, and other bones, all of which, 

 as Professor Huxley will show, belong to the Reptile Stagonolepis 

 Rohertsoni. Owing to its amorphous condition and to its relations 

 being obscured by detritus, the massive rock of siliceous cornstone 

 upon which the Castle of Spynie is built exhibits no absolute junction 

 with the sandstone. 



The surface being much covered by drift and the hiUs being all 

 very low, there is some difficulty in determining satisfactorily the 

 point which is, after all, the gist of the inquiry, — viz. whether the 

 sandstone with reptUes (i. e. of Spynie and Eindrassie) is really united 

 with the sandstone, of the same colour, containing ffoloptychii. This 

 question, however, would seem to be answered in the affirmative, 

 when we follow the Elgin ridge in its extension from east to west, 

 by finding near its base red and yellow grits and marls, with the scales 

 of IlohpfycJiii and other fish-remains. 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. viii. p. 99, fig. 1. 



