1873.] JUDD — THE SECONDARY ROCKS OF SCOTLAND. 195 



5. The alternation of the " brecciated beds " with the finely lami- 

 nated and quietly deposited strata, and the confused arrangement 

 of the blocks in the latter, their admixture with trunks of trees, 

 stems of cycads, and other plant-remains, seem to indicate that the 

 quiet deposition of the semi-estuarine beds was interrupted by the 

 occasional occurrence, in the rivers just alluded to, of floods of the 

 most violent character. These appear to have swept angular 

 masses, just separated from their parent rock by frosts or landslips, 

 subangular masses which had lain for a time in the course of the 

 streams, and the rounded pebbles of the river-beds, along with 

 trunks of trees torn from their banks, all in wild confusion out to 

 sea, where they were mingled with the sea-derived materials of the 

 shell-banks and shoals. 



6. The continuity which is preserved in masses of enormous di- 

 mensions composed of a number of strata, seems to suggest the 

 action of some agency in their transport beyond that of floods ; and 

 the only one which we are at present acquainted with capable of 

 thus buoying up these enormous masses unbroken to their destina- 

 tion, appears to be ice. Possibly, too, it will be difficult to account 

 for the occurrence of floods of such extraordinary violence as those 

 we have shown must have occurred, except upon the supposition 

 that the country was subject to those vicissitudes incident to the 

 presence of glaciers in neighbouring mountains. 



7. The total absence of glacial polishing and striation from the 

 surfaces of the transported blocks, and the abundance of a splendid 

 flora abounding in cycads, ferns, and large trees on the adjoining 

 land, to say nothing of the characters of the abundant marine fauna, 

 entirely preclude the idea that these masses were actually heaped 

 together by glaciers which came down to the sea-level. 



8. The local character of these blocks, and the absence of far- 

 travelled boulders, alike indicate that these accumulations could not 

 have been formed by the stranding and melting of icebergs. 



Here then we pause, in the expectation that future researches in 

 the physical geography of some as yet little-studied region may de- 

 monstrate the existence, in the same combination, of those con- 

 ditions which we have shown must have been present during the 

 deposition of the wonderful " brecciated beds " of the Ord. 



EXPLANATION OF THE MAP. PLATE VII. 



As the basis of this map the Admiralty Chart of the Moray Firth, on a scale 

 of two geographical miles to an inch, has been employed, the Ordnance Survey 

 of this part of Scotland not being yet completed. In drawing the boundaries 

 of the Palaeozoic rocks, I have, in the main, followed the older maps of Mac- 

 culloch, Hay-Cunningham, and Martin, adopting, however, many corrections 

 from more recent authorities, such as Prof. Nicol, Murchison and Geikie, and 

 the Rev. J. M. Joass. The geological lines for the Mesozoic formations I have 

 myself supplied. No attempt has been made to represent, on the southern side 

 of the Firth, the complicated relations of the Primary and Secondary strata 

 which have been brought about by the great faults ; even if it were practicable 

 to trace these relations with any approach to certainty in a district so covered 

 with drift-deposits, it would be impossible to exhibit them on a scale so small 

 as that of this map. 



o2 



