1873.] JUDD THE SECONDARY ROCKS OF SCOTLAND. 137 



of a dark material disseminated through it. Locally, as is so com- 

 monly the case with rocks coloured by oxide of iron, it exhibits 

 patches of a pinkish tint. In these sandstones false-bedding abounds, 

 while the true bedding is often very indistinct; the jointing, on the 

 other hand, is usually extremely well-defined ; and the combination 

 of these characters gives the rock a peculiar and distinctive mode of 

 weathering, as was pointed out to me by my friend Dr. Gordon. 



This rock is almost wholly destitute of organic remains ; but at 

 certain points, especially in some of the extensive quarries near 

 Cummingstown, its bedding- planes exhibit ripple-marks, sun-cracks, 

 and tracks of various kinds, including numerous series of foot- 

 prints of very various size and character. At Lossiemouth there 

 is a bed, about 100 feet below the top of the sandstones, which 

 has yielded numerous scales and bones of the reptiles Stagonolepis, 

 Hyperodapedon, and Telerpeton, while of the last-mentioned genus 

 a single specimen (the original one) has been found at Spynie, and 

 some remains of the first-mentioned have occurred at Findrassie. It 

 is a singular and noteworthy circumstance that the foot-prints and 

 reptilian remains are never found together ; and in only one instance 

 have they been obtained from the same qtiarry. 



This sandstone rock is very extensively quarried about Cummings- 

 town, Hopeman, Lossiemouth, and Spynie ; and most of its beds 

 yield a very valuable freestone, of excellent colour, which can be 

 obtained in blocks of great size. It forms, indeed, one of the prin- 

 cipal building-stones of the north of Scotland, and, the quarries 

 being contiguous to the sea, it is exported to considerable distances. 



Unfortunately the stratigraphical relations of the formation 

 which we have been describing are almost wholly concealed by the 

 enormous masses of Boulder-clay and other superficial accumulations 

 which prevail to so great an extent in this district. Dr. Gordon, 

 writing in 1859, says — 



"Two circumstances tend materially to render the examination 

 of this part of the province of Moray difficult to the geologist. 

 There are such vast accumulations of the Boulder-clay, of the 

 gravels and sandbanks of the drift, and of the debris of ancient sea- 

 margins, that few sections of the underlying strata are fully exposed ; 

 and even where they are best seen, there seems to have been so 

 great and so extensive a denudation during the time of their depo- 

 sition, that a complete or uninterrupted sequence of strata and their 

 beds has not been detected " *. 



An admirable description of these various superficial deposits has 

 been given by Mr. John Martin, of Elginf . 



The relation of the calcareous and arenaceous members of the for- 

 mation we are describing is fortunately perfectly clear ; and, indeed, 

 this point has never been disputed. At Stotfield and Inverugie the 

 peculiar calcareous and cherty rock is seen to overlie and pass down 

 into the Reptiliferous Sandstone ; and the position of the same strata 



* Edin. New Phil. Journ. New Ser. vol. ix. (185!>) p. 15. 

 t Ibid. New Ser. vol. iv. (1856) p. 209. 



