152 Rev. A. Sedgwick and Mr. Murchison on Deposits contained between 



2. Sandy marl, about one foot. 



3. Green marl and concretionary limestone, four feet. 



4. Irregular, brown, sandy bed, with green stains, one foot. 



5. Irregular bed of concretionary limestone, very impure, and much mixed 

 with o-reen, red, and violet-coloured marls, some of which are penetrated by 

 veins of carbonate of lime, and much mixed with pyrites ; eight feet. 



G. Strong bed of yellowish grey limestone, ten feet. 



This bed contains more calcareous matter than the others, but many parts 

 of it are distinctly concretionary, and much mixed with green pyritous marls. 

 Portions of it are cherty, contain chalcedonic veins, and small flattened cells 

 coated over with mammillated, reddish chalcedony. Other portions exhibit a 

 compact, yellowish grey limestone marked with dendritic stains. These pass 

 into the softer varieties mixed with, and subordinate to, green pyritous marls. 

 The whole of this irregular mass is penetrated by veins of carbonate of lime, 

 which sometimes aggregates in balls exhibiting diverging radii; and the breaks 

 and fissures of the bed are commonly coated over with agaric mineral. 



7. Below the limestone is a system of beds of sandstone which may be traced 

 up the river, and which are of considerable thickness. They are chiefly com- 

 posed of a brownish sandstone, here and there streaked and stained with red, 

 of rather coarser texture, and passing, in one or two places, into a pebbly con- 

 glomerate. It is associated with beds of finer texture, which are nearly inco- 

 herent; and, about half a mile further up the river, are some inferior beds of 

 fine texture and pink colour, which make a good building-stone. The dip is 

 here north by west, about 8°. 



The beds associated Avith the cornstone are, in the neighbourhood of Elgin 

 (and we believe we might add along the whole line of their range), surmounted 

 by a great system of sandstone strata, which are generally of a yellowish grey 

 colour, and in which quarries have been opened, affording one of the most 

 beautiful, light-coloured building-stones in the North of Scotland. Three of 

 these quarries in a lofty hill of sandstone on the west side of Elgin, lay bare 

 a very fine and characteristic assemblage of these beds of freestone. The 

 lowest of them exposes about twenty-five feet of good, yellowish white, siliceous 

 sandstone, surmounted by ten or twelve feet of rubbly beds. The best por- 

 tions are very finely grained, with smafl specks of kaolin. In the middle quarry, 

 which is in a higher part of the deposit, several of the masses exhibit partial 

 spots and stains of black, and there are thin bands of green marl between the 

 stronger beds. The upper quarry exposes about thirty feet of strong brown 

 sandstone. The beds are very regular, vary from four to six or seven feet in 

 thickness, and from some of them single blocks have been raised more than 



