110 PROCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 8, 



in the several editions of Sir Charles Lyell's] ' Manual of Geology,' 

 and of Sir Roderick Murchison's ' Silnria.' 



In 1863 the Old Red Sandstone theory appeared to receive some 

 support from the discovery of footprints in the sandstones of the 

 Tarbet Ness promontory by the Rev. Geo. Campbell and the Rev. J. 

 M. Joass ; and in the following year Professor Harkness, while ad- 

 mitting that the sections of Sir Roderick Murchison across Elgin- 

 shire could not be maintained, and that the country was certainly 

 traversed by great faults, yet argued that, nevertheless, the strati- 

 graphical evidence was in favour of our regarding the Reptiliferous 

 sandstone as belonging to the Old Red. 



Professor Huxley's new and detailed account of Telerpeton in 1867 

 was followed in 1869 by the description of Hyperodapedon Gordoni ; 

 and in this latter memoir it was shown that the same genus occurs 

 in the Trias of Warwickshire, Devonshire, and India. This discovery 

 was admitted by Sir Roderick Murchison and most other geologists 

 to be conclusive as to the Triassic age of the beds. 



While the attention of geologists was concentrated on the Repti- 

 liferous sandstones, but little fresh light was thrown on the other 

 Secondary deposits of the east coast of Scotland. Mr. C. Moore, in 

 1859, published his reasons for considering the strata at Linksfield 

 of Rhsetic age ; which view was supported by Professor Rupert Jones 

 on a study of some of the fossils. The Rev. W. Symonds stated in 

 1860 that a collection of Eathie and Shandwick fossils, on being 

 submitted to some able Cotteswold palaeontologists, were pronounced 

 by them to be of Upper Oolite and not of Liassic age. Hugh Miller 

 had already suggested that part of these strata were probably Oolitic, 

 while Professor Phillips in 1870 stated that his examination of 

 Lieut. Patterson's collection led him to infer that they belonged to 

 the Oxfordian*. Dr. Gordon, in 1863, published some notes on the 

 physical relations of the secondary strata in Ross and Sutherland ; 

 and in his most valuable work the ' Scenery of Scotland,' Prof. 

 Geikie in 1865 added some important observations on the same 

 subject. 



In making a general reexamination of the Secondary deposits in 

 the east of Scotland, some facilities have fortunately been afforded to 

 me which were not within the reach of previous observers. Thus 

 the new railway which passes along the east coast of Sutherland 

 has yielded several new and interesting sections in the various 

 cuttings ; while the coal-strata, which had remained undisturbed for 

 44 years, were during the time of my visit again opened up to obser- 

 vation at several points. 



By the establishment at Dunrobin of a Museum illustrative of the 



* Professor Phillips has recently furnished me with on extract from his note- 

 book, which shows that the inspection of Lieut. Patterson's collection in 1866 

 convinced him that the beds at Eathie and Shandwick belonged to two different 

 horizons, and that the peculiar long Belemnites were found only at the former 

 place. Unfortunately, some specimens with a wrong locality affixed to them, 

 afterwards came into the Professor's possession, and led to the less precise 

 statements in his account of these Belemnites in the memoir. 



