1873.] JTTDD THE SECONDAKY KOCKS OF SCOTLAND. 159 



the shore, we find their strike to change gradually from N. by E. 

 and S. by W. to E.N.E. and W.S.W. ; it is difficult to determine 

 whether the thick masses of sandstone which are seen in the 

 cliffs at Strathsteven, and which are worn into caves at Sputie Bay, 

 regularly underlie the beds already enumerated ; but it is probable 

 that such is the case. On the shore at Strathsteven beds of clay 

 and argillaceous limestone, containing a bed of coal about 18 inches 

 thick, are seen. Near this point, the sandstones, which are usually 

 very destitute of any trace of fossils, contain a few casts of marine 

 shells in one of the beds. These are, unfortunately, very badly pre- 

 served as casts only, and rarely capable of specific determination. 



Pecten (ribbed species). 



articulatus, Schloth. 



demissus (?), Phil. 



Large masses of wood (casts). 



Quenstedtia oblita(?), Phil., sp. 

 Lucina, sp. 

 Trigonia, sp. (cast). 

 Astarte elegans (?), Sow. 

 Myacites decurtatus, Phil., sp. 



Obscure as these fossils are for the most part, there can be little 

 doubt that the beds which yield them belong to the Lower Oolite. 



The thick masses of sandstone which are seen in the Strathsteven 

 cliffs exhibit much false-bedding, and often many seams of car- 

 bonaceous matter ; they yield a good and easily worked freestone, 

 hardening rapidly on exposure, which was once extensively dug at 

 the Cleat quarries. The opening of the quarries in the Triassic 

 sandstones on the south side of the Moray Firth, at Covesea, Hope- 

 man, &c, has caused the almost total abandonment of the Suther- 

 land quarries, a result due not so much to the superiority of the 

 rock at the former localities as to the greater facilities there both 

 for its shipment and land transport. 



The sandstones about Strathsteven present the usual characters 

 of the arenaceous type of estuarine series. The stratification is often 

 obscure ; the beds appear to dip S.E. 20° near the Cleat quarry. 

 Sometimes the rock is ferruginous, and when exposed in reefs on 

 the shore assumes a bright red colour. Two borings, of nearly 

 200 feet, have been put down in these beds at Strathsteven. One 

 of these, made by Mr. "William Miller in 1798, by the side of the 

 parliamentary road, gave the following section : — 



ft. in. 



" Various metals " 31 



Soft rotten freestone 18 2 



Hard white freestone 109 6 



Limestone 4 6 



" Whinstone " (Cherty grit ?) 1 4 



" Blae or Till " (Blue clay) 5 1 



"Whinstone" 8 



Soft or rotten freestone 4 1 



" Whinstone " (not cut through) 2 5 



Total 176 9 



As already observed, the base of this series of strata has nowhere 

 been reached by boring ; and on account of the great trausverse 

 faults, which let down a patch of newer strata between Strathsteven 



