310 Mr. MuRCHisoN on the Coal-field of Brora in Sutherlandshire, 



therefore proceed to notice those beds which came under my observation^ and 

 which further confirm the analogy between these deposits in the Highlands of 

 Scotland and the oolitic series in England. 



On the north-eastern side of the harbour of Portree, the lofty trap rocks 

 which occupy the cliffs upon the coast, retire from the sea, and bound a small ele- 

 vated vale called Beal, of about half a mile in length and 200 yards in breadth. 

 The beds of which the higher part is composed, consist of a calcareous agglo- 

 merate of fossils, not to be distinguished from many portions of the English 

 cornbrash and forest marble, whilst, in some parts, it resembles those fissile 

 beds of oolite, which cap the cliffs at Bridport in Dorsetshire, overlying the 

 sandstone of the inferior oolite. The characteristic fossils, like those of the 

 shelly limestone on the coast of Sutherland with which it is identical, are the 

 terebratula inconstans and the avicula inequivalvis, and the beds contain- 

 ing them here, as well as at Brora, are overlaid by a yellowish white sandstone. 

 These beds present a mural escarpment to the coast dipping slightly to the 

 N.W, in conformity with the arenaceous strata containing large nodular 

 calcareous concretions upon which they rest. This Beal limestone is fissured 

 to its summits by several dykes of greenstone, both compact and amygdaloidal. 

 Most of these are empty, but one is still filled with zeolitic greenstone, having 

 numerous small veins ramifying from it, but the regularity of dip is not in this 

 case altered by the intruding rock. 



On approaching Holm, the sandstone is seen rising to a considerable height 

 from beneath the fossil limestone, but is obscured by the trap towards the 

 higher parts of the cliffs, though it exhibits greater regularity of structure 

 near their bases ; containing those calcareous concretionary nodules with 

 fossils, which elsewhere mark the lines of stratification in the sandstones of 

 the inferior oolite. Amongst these fossils are the mya V. scripta, pectens, 

 seqiulae, encrinites, belemnites, &c. 



To the N.E. of Holm the sandstones and shales retiring from the coast, 

 ascend into a lofty escarpment, over which the cascade of Eas-veririg falls, at 

 a few hundred yards from the beach. Impressions of vegetables found in 

 these sandstones belong apparently to the same family of plants which has 

 been described in treating of Brora, and ostreae are here also found attached 

 to carbonized wood. 



At the base of the sea cliff, beds of sandy micaceous shale contain com- 

 pacted masses of the large belemnites abbreviatus, so characteristic of the 

 inferior oolite, with limestone nodules, masses of ammonites, and some 

 undescribed bivalves : amongst the ammonites is a new species figured in 

 Min. Con. tab. 550. 



