and some other Stratified Deposits in the North of Scotland. 303 



The fossils of these reefs are for the most part referrible to the Oxford 

 clay, and in general aspect the micaceous shales strongly resemble those already 

 described in that part of the series on the N. E. coast of Yorkshire. It is 

 probable, as I have elsewhere stated, that these same beds occur immediately 

 below the quarries of Braambury, and would there have been seen overlying 

 the sandstone of the clitfs, had they not been obscured by diluvium. These 

 ledges of rock at Dunrobin are quite detached, and the sandy beach is resumed 

 to the N. E., the eminences upon which the castle stands being diluvial, al- 

 though' the existence of sandstone below with subordinate coal has been 

 ascertained by borings in that neighbourhood, and beds of shale basset out 

 near the road from thence to Inverbrora. 



A low coast of blown sand extending for about a mile towards the N.E. 

 leads to the cliffs, which, in rising, exhibit a yellowish white micaceous sand- 

 stone ; and, at this place, coal has been partially worked, probably a higher 

 seam than that at Inverbrora. 



At Strathsteven, the sandstone is quarried to the depth of 30 feet : it is here 

 of a pure white colour, very friable when first raised, but hardening by expo- 

 sure, and then acquiring partial ferruginous stains on the surface. In mine- 

 ralogical structure it is identical with many beds of the great sandstone for- 

 mation of the Eastern Moorlands ; and thin courses of coal, differing some- 

 what in structure as well as in position from that of Inverbrora, indicate that 

 here, as upon the Scarborough coast, there are several seams of that mineral. 

 These quarries are valuable from their contiguity to the sea, and the facility 

 with which the stone is worked. The cliff lowers gradually from hence, 

 into trivial hillocks covered with blown sand, at the links of Inverbrora, where 

 are still the remains of several old coal-pits. (See Appendix.) 



The reefs which are exposed along the coast between Strathsteven and 

 Inverbrora, with the exception of one fault, rise to the W. N. W. being 

 prolongations of the strata of the Inverbrora coal-field ; the beds of which 

 being thus shown to be conformable throughout so considerable a space, their 

 dip and inclination, viz. E. 25°, may be assumed to be those of the de- 

 posit. Coal has occasionally been worked at low water near the old salt-pans 

 under a bed of fossils, agreeing precisely in contents and thickness with that 

 which has been described as forming the roof of the coal at Inverbrora. 

 The fossils are here found in a high state of preservation, and, in their 

 ferruginous aspect, strongly resemble those of the pier stone of Scarborough. 

 This bed, like that which overlies the coal at the Inverbrora pits, is covered 

 by a suite of sands and shales, the latter containing flattened ammonites, and 

 a large variety of the belemnites sulcatus. (Geol. Trans. 2nd ser. vol. ii. 



VOL. II. — SECOND SERIES. 2 R 



