1873.] JUDD THE SECONDARY EOCKS OF SCOTLAND. 141 



every instance due to the indestructibility of the overlying cherty 

 rock, the absence of this latter in Ross-shire becomes the more inex- 

 plicable. No importance can be attached to the fact which has 

 been pointed out that fragments of the rock are found on the beach 

 near Tarbet Ness, as, owing to their intense hardness, similar rolled 

 fragments are common all round the shores of the Moray Firth. 



Although we may reject the evidence of the footprints of Tarbet 

 Ness as supporting the identification of the sandstones of that place 

 with the reptiliferous beds of Elginshire, yet the great interest and 

 importance of the discovery remains. Indeed that interest is greatly 

 heightened if, by the separation of them from the Reptiliferous 

 Sandstone of Elginshire, we are able to remove all reasons for doubt- 

 ing their Old-Red age ; for we may, in that case, regard it as proved 

 that beings higher in the animal series than fishes existed at as 

 early a period as that of the Upper Old Red Sandstone. 



The difficulties in which, as we have seen, the question of the re- 

 lations of this remarkable formation is involved on the southern side 

 of the Moray Firth disappear, I believe, when we examine it on the 

 northern side of the same Firth. In the county of Sutherland, at a 

 distance of 30 miles from Stotfield, both the members of the forma- 

 tion occur ; and the sections, fortunately, are of such a clear cha- 

 racter that, while on the one hand they satisfy the observer as to 

 the identity of the rocks on the north with those on the south of the 

 Firth, they, on the other hand, leave no room for doubt as to the true 

 position of these rocks in the geological series. 



I am indebted to the Rev. J. M. Joass for first calling my atten- 

 tion to some patches of a peculiar rock imperfectly exposed in the 

 Burn of Golspie. Subsequent study of the district enabled me to 

 trace this rock, partly by small exposures and partly by the exact 

 records of the position of old lime-pits &c. in Farcy's Report on the 

 district (to which I have already alluded), through its outcrop of 

 nearly two miles in length to the reefs on the shore between Golspie 

 and Dunrobin, where its relation to the series of Secondary strata 

 is perfectly evident. A careful examination and comparison of the 

 rocks on both sides of the Moray Firth convinced me that this rock 

 was no other than the Cherty Rock of Stotfield, and that it was 

 underlain by a series of sandstones with similar characters to those 

 of the reptiliferous beds of Elgin. My friend Dr. Gordon has since 

 informed me that some years ago, on being shown the isolated 

 patches of rock in the Golspie Burn (concerning the relations of which 

 nothing was at that time known), he at once pronounced them to be 

 identical in character with his " Cherty Rock of Stotfield." 



I have already pointed out the highly distinctive characters of this 

 remarkable rock, which characters are exhibited in the most striking 

 manner by the Sutherland deposit. We have the same peculiar 

 cream-coloured limestone, occasionally crystallized, with like irre- 

 gular cherty nodules, the whole mingled with the same greenish 

 argillaceous mineral. Indeed, when we compare a series of speci- 

 mens obtained on the northern side of the Firth with one from the 

 southern side, the rocks are found to be absolutely undistinguish- 



