128 



PKOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



[Jan. 8, 



figs. 10 and 11. The plan (fig. 9) shows the general relations of 

 the strata exposed in Eathie Bay. At one point the rocks of the 

 Upper Oolite, near their junction with the Old Red Sandstone, present 

 the same crushed appearance that is so common, under similar 

 circumstances, with the strata in Sutherland. 



Crossing to the south side of the Moray Firth we find at Stotfield, 

 in the county of Elgin, a patch of sandstone strata, to which my at- 

 tention was first called by Dr. Gordon, and which has yielded to the 

 patient researches of Mr. Grant, of Lossiemouth, a very considerable 

 fauna. These beds, as will be shown in the sequel, are of Lower- 

 Oolite age ; and they are clearly seen to be faulted against the strata 

 composed of calcareous and arenaceous rocks of Triassic age (see 

 section fig. 12) *. It is possible that the whole of the reefs at this 



S.S.E. 



Fig. 12. — Section at Stotfield, Elginshire. 



N.U.W. 



Eeefs on 

 Shingle. Shore. 



x. Boulder-clay. 



a. " Reptiliferous Sandstone." 



b. " Cherty rock of Stotfield." 



c. Greenish and reddish sandstones with shells (Lower Oolite). 



Trias. 



point, and of the outlying rocks called Halliman Scars, are of the 

 same age, and that their red colour is an accident due to similar 

 causes to that which has produced the red colour of many of the 

 reefs of Oolitic rock on the shore of Sutherland. These beds, 

 however, have as yet yielded no fossils ; and future researches may 

 show that they are of a different age, and have been brought into 

 their present position by another fault. 



The promontory of Burghead is formed by a series of sandstones, 

 grits, and conglomerates which, as Professor Harkness has well 

 shown, is faulted against the great mass of the Reptiliferous sand- 

 stone f which forms the coast-ridge here. The similarity of position 



* Since this paper was read, Prof. Ramsay has kindly intrusted to me the 

 note-hook used by him during his examination of the north of Scotland in 1859. 

 It affords me no small satisfaction to find that in this, as in a number of other 

 points, my own conclusions are entirely confirmed by the unpublished observa- 

 tions of my former teacher. Prof. Ramsay recognized the existence of a great 

 fault at Stotfield, and represented it in a section identical in all essential points 

 with my own. 



t Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xx. (1864) p. 436, fig. 3. 



