and Greenland Fossils in Aberdeenshire. 437 



Sutherlandshire, is considerably to the west of the first ap- 

 pearance of the same formation in England: but this results 

 naturally from what was before mentioned of the geological 

 formations running, not east and west, but north-east and 

 south-west; not right, but diagonally across the country. We 

 have thus lias at Cromarty, and a lower oolite near Elgin. 

 May it not be possible, that all we want to complete the re- 

 maining members of the series is simply to be able to carry 

 out our section into the Moray Frith? 



Such an hypothesis receives confirmation from the fact, that 

 in the neighbourhood of Elgin are beds containing Wealden 

 fossils, " which," says Mr. Nicol, " we are ]ed to suspect 

 are not original formations, but fragments of more extensive 

 beds, perhaps drifted to this place." The diluvial clay con- 

 taining lias fossils at Blackpots may also indicate a formation 

 beneath the waters of the bay. By referring to the geological 

 map of England, it will be seen that the greensand accom- 

 panies the chalk lying on the west of it and on the east of the 

 lias, to the shore of the Channel. Our patch of it at Cruden 

 might form part of the termination of a similar stripe, un- 

 less it, too, can be accounted for in the same way as the 

 Moray Wealdens, by supposing it a drifted fragment from the 

 north. 



May we then fairly infer, that at one period the space now 

 occupied by the Moray Frith contained a perfect sequence 

 of the secondary formations ; that first the soft chalk strata 

 suffered denudation by the ordinary action of north-easterly 

 gales, currents and drift-ice, and that the roll of the German 

 Ocean piled up its debris in the shape of these water-worn 

 flint boulders along its successive ancient shores ; and that the 

 Wealden and oolite of Elgin, and lias of Blackpots^ followed 

 in the same course? 



That part of this theory applicable to the lias of Blackpots 

 Mr. Miller states thus, in his description of that deposit: — 

 " There had probably existed to the west or north-west of the 

 deposit, perhaps in the middle of the open bay formed by the 

 promontory on which it rests — for the small proportion of 

 other than liasic materials which it contains serves to show 

 that it could be derived from no great distance — an outlier of 

 the lower lias. The icebergs of the cold glacial period, pro- 

 pelled along the submerged land by some arctic current, or 

 caught up by the gulf-stream, gradually grated it down, as a 

 mason's labourer grates down the surface of the sandstone 

 slab he is engaged in polishing; and the comminuted debris, 

 borne eastward by the current, was cast down here." 



At Blackpots the lias fossils occur in clay containing few 



