432 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [DeC. 15,^ 



' In the heart of the Aberdeenshire Highlands, near Ehynie and on 

 the banks of the Bogie, the Rev. Alex. Mackay found in 1854 other 

 fossil remains in Eed Sandstone, some of which he submitted to the 

 late Hugh Miller*. One of these objects, which he has transmitted to 

 the Museum of Practical Geology, is unquestionably a fragment of a 

 large stem of a plant, which measures 4 feet in length by 5 inches in 

 width. It is nearly cylindrical, and is fluted irregularly near the 

 pointed tip. ]^o joints or nodes are visible as in Calamites; but the 

 surface is coarsely striated. The striae or ribs are too obscure to 

 warrant us in placing this fossil plant in the genus Columnar ia of 

 Sternberg, which it most resembles f. 



Concluding Remarks. — In stiU. holding the received opinion, that 

 the sandstones in which the Stagonolepis and Telerpeton occur 

 belong to the uppermost member of the Old Eed or Devonian group 

 of rock,s, it is necessary to meet the objections to this classification 

 which may very naturally be made by persons who, not having 

 examined the country, are solely influenced by the circumstance of 

 reptiles of high organization being found in so ancient a deposit. 

 Such reasoners (with whom my own progressionist tendencies pre- 

 dispose me to concur) may also suggest one local geological feature 

 which appears to favour their hypothesis. Seeing that many Oolitic 

 and Liassic fossils are spread over the surface of the lower por- 

 tions of this tract of Morayshire, and that small patches of a few 

 yards in dimension have even been stated to occur in situ, they 

 may contend that these are the relics of strata which reposed upon 

 the light-coloured sandstones, and that the latter may really repre- 

 sent a portion of the Lower Lias, or even Trias, in which reptilian 

 remains are known to abound. But, as no strata of Lias have been 

 detected in situ, and as the small patches with Oolitic Wealden 

 fossils rest on the eroded surfaces of the cornstones and sandstones, 

 there is nowhere an indication of any connexion between these 

 fragmentary relics and the subjacent rocks. Again, it is to be recol- 

 lected that all the Oolitic fossils of Moray occur either in dark shale 

 or in loose drift, and that not a trace of these fossils is to be seen in 

 the reptiHferous sandstones, which are of entirely diiferent characters. 



It may also be said that, although small relics or even debris only 

 are left of these younger Oolitic deposits, we must not judge by the 

 evidences on the south side of the Moray Firth, but repair to the 

 tract of Brora and Dunrobin as well as to the shore of Ethie on the 

 northern side of this great estuary, and there see if, in the diversified 

 strata of Oolitic and Liassic age (all of which may once have extended 

 to Morayshire), there are no rocks which can be assimilated to those 



* Some of these are impressions, occurring in the argillaceous layers of the 

 sandstone, and were at first taken for fucoidal and fern-like imprints ; but Mr. 

 Hugh Miller (as I am informed by Mr. Mackay) regarded them as the tracks of a 

 Crustacean. An inspection of these very imperfect impressions conveyed to Mr, 

 Salter the idea that they might have been made by the pectoral fins of fishes 

 swimming in shallow water. 



t Not having personally examined the tract in which Mr. Mackay resides 

 (though I hope to do so next summer), I cannot pretend to decide upon the posi- 

 tion ^hich this plant occupies in the series of Old Eed strata. 



